To fall in love with the one you cannot ever see
by Sin-Shira
Summary: Having been shrunk about two years prior, Conan has to face the possibility that changing back to his old self will take a lot longer than anticipated. Hiding the truth from Ran had by now become second nature, however keeping one rather famous thief's nose out of the situation with the Black Organisation might prove to be a lot more complicated.
1. Chapter 1: Two years

**Disclaimer:**

The Characters and World were created by Gosho Aoyama. I do not make any profit, the only reward I get from writing this, are the comments my readers leave behind.

**Relationships:**

Ran x Shinichi (past to present), Shinichi x Kaito (future)

* * *

><p><span><em><strong>Chapter 1: Two years<strong>_

Finally weekend. Not a nice one, mind you, since the weather forecast promised storm rain and the apocalypse. But it did mean he was released from the slow process of rotting his brain by relearning elementary stuff. If he could at least read some interesting books or other stuff. But he had tried – and failed – since not only the teacher had been a bit cross with him for not paying attention (So what if he could still answer the questions simply by splitting his attention 1 to 99?), but Haibara had scolded him for his suspicious behavior and he had a three hour lecture about appearing to be a normal kid. And normal kids didn't read highschool to college class books.

So now he was stuck (mostly) with doing things either in an underhanded way, like copying books on paper (which would make it superfluous to bring a book to school, since he would have to read it if he copied it by hand) or having them on his phone (and nearly getting caught 'playing' in class and getting scolded by Ran. Right.). Or simply enduring the torture.

He was still a bit twitchy from their last run-in with the Black Organisation, however things had cooled down again and his paranoia begun to settle a bit.

* * *

><p>The night was dark and stormy, as promised, when Conan, sitting on the windowsill in Professor Agasas house contemplated about what his life had become. By now about two years had passed, since he found out about the Organisation that had shrunk him that fateful day in Tropical Island.<p>

Since then he had been hiding. Living his life as a child with the mind of an adult at his childhood friends - and at the same time romantic interest – home. Even now it sometimes was hard to believe, even though he saw the proof every time he looked into a mirror.

An almost soundless sigh passed his lip as he looked away from the outside, where rain was splashing against the window and let his feet dangle before he quietly slipped back to the ground. With a rueful smile to his reflection in the glass, he turned around and tiptoed back to the room where he had a futon on the floor next to Haibaras bed. The former Black Organisation member was sleeping peacefully. While sleeping, Shinichi thought, she really looked like a kid. He did know that, if Ai ever found out that he thought her to be quite cute while sleeping, the demon she actually was when awake would make his life hell.

Slipping under the cover and pulling the blanket up to his chest, he lay down on his back and crossed the arms behind his head. Two years of his life, gone because of his insatiable curious mind and reckless... no, arrogant behavior back then, thinking himself invulnerable.

Restless he rolled to his side and closed his eyes, trying to banish the almost depressing thoughts by thinking about other stuff. Elementary school was easy, but he had become fond of the kids that had so persistently burrowed their way into his heart. Even though Ayumis crush was kind of disturbing, since she was so much younger then him, in mind and body, and despite Gentas recklessness and Mistuhikos jealousy, they had formed a close group. Dare he say it? It was almost fun to be with them. Kinda.

* * *

><p>The next morning began with a splash of water to his face.<p>

"What the -?!" abruptly sitting up he found himself face to face with teal colored eyes of the smirking demon child. Oh great. She was awake. Non of that normal child vibe visible anymore.

"Morning Kudo-kun." she said, standing up and slowly walking out of the room "It's getting late." standing on her tiptoes to put the water gun she had used on him on a shelf before adding "I thought I would help you out since you didn't get up on your own and apparently forgot to set your alarm." Throwing one last smirk over her shoulder she was gone, while Conan was still rubbing the water from his face. Evil. Pure. Evil.

It was still relaxing to sometimes be able to loose the childish mask he had to war almost constantly, which is why he quite enjoyed being at the Professors house. At times like this he could read or learn the things, that someone his mental age would be challenged by. It was his way to keep up with school stuff from his life as Shinichi Kudo. It was a lot harder to stay up to date and the things he could spy on occasion in Rans books or school-notes were far and few in between. When he was still in high school, he had been ahead of his classmates. He did fear how much he time he lost would set him back.

"Ne, Haibara..." sitting on the couch and rereading 'The Sign of Four' he passed a glance at the girl calmly drinking tea while typing something at her computer "..."

"Out with it, Kudo."

"... I was just wondering if you made any progress with the cure..." Conan mumbled while fixing his eyes to the text. It had been a while since he last asked. His eyes stayed at the same spot, he feared and anticipated the answer, so he could hear the pause in Haibaras typing, before it continued. There was a long silence and Conan almost decided that Ai wouldn't answer his question, before she spoke.

"Not much progress. I've told you before, the cure we have works. Temporary. I still need to find out the original composition of the APTX to make a final cure."

Conan remained silent and listened to her typing, knowing that she wasn't finished yet. He didn't ask her often, that was because he knew what she would tell him since the words rarely changed. Still, from time to time he needed a reminder, to make himself believe that it was possible to return to his old life.

"The reason why I can't give you more of the temporary cures is, that it's extremely stressful for your body to change not only once, but twice in such a short time. The fewer temporary cures you take, the better, since it is very much possible that your body will exhaust itself if they are used too often."

Another long pause.

"... I'm sorry, Kudo. It will probably still take a long time to get a final cure. The process to make the APTX 4869 took years. Years before I actually worked on it myself. The cure... will probably take a lot of time to make too."

Giving a low hum he turned the page without really reading anything, before closing the book with a snap and setting it to the side.

"Thank you." he said and saw her peer over her shoulder to him. Managing a small smile he shrugged his shoulder in a slightly helpless gesture.

"I just needed to hear it again." he did know that he was reminding her of the past she would rather forget, and was kind of sorry that he brought it up again, but it did help him to hear she was working on it and hadn't given up yet.

"Anytime." came her almost cold reply as she turned back to the monitor.

Shaking his head he grabbed his book and left her to her own devices, before his breathing annoyed her enough to make her do unspeakable things to him.

Later that day he found himself walking home.

After entering the apartment above the office he threw an "I'm back!" into the living room and was greeted by Ran from the kitchen.

"Welcome home! How was your sleepover?"

"It was cool! The Professor showed us a new Game. It's too bad that due to the flu the others had to stay at home."

It was now his day to day life to play the child he was in body to the people around him. Sometimes it was confusing. It was hardest to act like a child, while on a case. There were very few instances where he could simply show his true self. The safest it was with Agasa and Ai, both who obviously knew about his secret. His parents were rarely here, which he preferred, but he knew he could count on them. Then there was Hattori, who had also become a close friend. Even though that guy was far too honest and a bad lair to boot. Lastly there were the Kaito Kid heists. It had actually become one of his favorite pastimes to attend, since not only could he – in a safe environment since Kid insisted on his no hurt policy – apply his mind to uncover the tricks and mysteries the magician masterfully constructed. The chase was also often interesting. Not only that, the criminal had at times helped Conan out, pretending to be Shinichi – not that he was grateful for some of these moments, but it had saved him from being uncovered - or helping catch the criminal. He wouldn't call them friends, but they weren't enemies either.

On that note, Shinichi thought, it seemed as if Kid had send a new heist note and it made front-paper news again. He couldn't help the tendril of excitement that shot through him, since the last time Kid showed his face had been almost two months ago.

Stretching his neck to read the papers that were still being held in Kogoros Hands, he found the note that was being shown on the picture and burned it to his memory, so he could copy it on a paper later. The time and date was already obvious to him, though the location and target eluded him for now.

A glance into the kitchen showed Ran at the stove, wearing an apron and humming to a melody in the radio. It made him smile to see her like this, even if he missed her terribly, he was glad to see her in a good mood. Reminding himself to phone her soon he sat on the couch and and fiddled with his notebook, where he put down Kaito Kids new heist note and thought about it.

* * *

><p>When the sunlight's glory is gone,<p>

a dove will happen to wing on,

to the moonlit, starry sky.

There is no rest for the wicked.

* * *

><p>Well, Conan thought, nibbling on his pencil. The riddle was actually straight forward this time. sunlight's glory gone, meant when the sun set. So. At sunset. The next two lines probably indicated the target. A dove, moonlight and starry sky. All three could also stand for the Magician thief, who probably owned a few of the animals himself, if the time where he dressed as Shinichi Kudo and became a bird stand was any indication. The last sentence... either hinted also at the target but it could also stand for Sunday, since that would be a day for rest. Normally. If a wicked thief didn't send heist notes to a certain poor police department and said department didn't have to get up and chase the magician around the location.<p>

Conan leant back and closed the small notebook, he would have to look up if any interesting jewelry arrived lately. Going to his room to use the laptop would have to wait until after dinner though.

For now he was relatively sure that the moonlight magician would steal the target next Sunday at sunset. Plenty of time to get to know the location and target himself.

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN:**

This is my first time trying to write a story. I hope I have not bitten of too much by making my first work a multi chapter fanfiction.

As things stand, I have a rough idea where I want to go, but to get there I will still have to fill in a lot in between now and then.

The first few chapters stand, however I cannot promise you that I will not change something later on for a purpose in the story later on.

I am German so there will probably quite a few mistakes in the text (though I tried to read it over several times). If you find some, please point them out to me so I can correct them later on :)

Lastly: Since I don't know my update speed yet, be prepared for slow, irregular updates. You have been warned :3


	2. Chapter 2: Rooftop conversations

_**Chapter 2: Rooftop conversations**_

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><p>The following week was almost too peaceful for Conan, who was used to odd circumstances leading to murder around him. It was a good, boring week, only two cases that had been easy to solve. One was a writer, who felt he had been stalked, which had been his manager that went a bit overboard in his concern about the writer. The other was finding a missing Item, that the owner had lost.<p>

Kaitou Kids note had kept his mind busy for two days. Having searched the news in Museums it was no wonder he had at first missed the newly arrived Jewel. The large Moonstone, named Mūṉ ṭav, that now resided in a Planetarium, basicly meant moon dove. Ha, Ha. Dove, moonlit, starry sky. Yeah, right. It was so easy that he was almost embarrassed that it had taken him so long.

Right now he was standing at a window in the planetarium. They were currently on the highest floor of the building and Conan was more or less sure, that Kid would try to escape from the roof. The checks at the entrance would make it difficult for Kid to get out of the building otherwise, disguise or no disguise. From the window he had a great view of the slowly setting sun, while Nakamori was giving his usual speech to the live feed.

Looking from the sun to his watch he counted down the time still left before Kid would make his entrance, while looking at the people around him and around the treasure.

When the last rays of the sun finally disappeared, a tense silence filled the room, the officers looking suspiciously around for anything incriminating.

A low, portentous hiss sounded, followed by thick steam slowly crawling over the floor. The officers nervously looked down, unsure if the mist would have any consequences of mischief that the thief usually doled out like candy on Halloween.

Conan carefully put his hand in the substance to test the consistence between his fingers. It was simply fog from a fog machine that was hidden somewhere, so he quickly looked up again, just in time to see Kid landing on the case where the target lay. The officers that had just a moment ago surrendered the display case were now lying on the floor, mist crawling over their bodies like it wanted to swallow them whole.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, dearest fans and children!" the thief announced while standing up and spreading his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Welcome to today's heist!"  
>Conan growled, being smaller than the rest the mist was already beginning to obscure his vision, while the officers only had it up to their waist for now. But he was sure the Thief had thrown him a mocking grin, when he had added the children part. For that alone he would get the irritating thief with his soccer-ball at least once..<p>

While Nakamori charged Kid like a bull who saw a fluttering cloth, together with several other Officers (forgetting that there were people lying on the floor, adding to the chaos that piled up around the display case), Kid crossed his arms over his chest and quickly threw them out again. A swarm of doves hid the thief and display case from view, long enough for the phantom thief to make a disappearance. Meanwhile it seemed as if the area around the display case had been coated in some kind of glue. The police that had dog-piled there had now a real problem getting back up again.

Cursing his small body Conan took of running for the roof.

He arrived quickly enough to catch his breath a bit before the thief stalked onto the roof like he owned the building. Conceited bastard.

Quickly kneeling down he prepared to kick the round leather at Kid, when the thief spotted him and grinned.

"Tantei-kun!" Conan twitched. It almost sounded as if Kid was... happy to see him. Creepy.

"My favorite little critic!" definitely happy? Confused he stopped his movement and eyed the magician, that was by now almost carelessly flipping the moonstone brooch in the air, suspiciously.

"It has been a rather long time since we last met."

"...Isn't that because you haven't shown your ugly mug for four months?"

"My, my, does that mean you missed me? Counting the time since our last date!" the teasing voice grated on his nerves.

Still, he was not sure where Kid wanted to head the conversation, while he was in a crunched position half ready to kick a ball at his target. Since Kid was throwing the jewelry around like a coin, he couldn't really take aim at him without risking the jewelry being thrown over the edge of the roof as well. He did wonder if Kid had calculated that when going to the roof, which meant that the thief had probably known all along that Conan was up here before him.

Which led to the conclusion: Kid hat taken his time to get here, or all that Conan would have found was a hang-glider on the horizon. And if Kid had taken his time and predicted that Conan would follow him here...

"What do you want?"

That annoying smile was fixed to Kids face, Conan would love to wipe it off as it grated on his nerve.

"What makes you think I would want something from you?"

The eye-roll Conan couldn't hide only earned him a snicker.

"Okay, you got me. Let's say I'm curious about you."

This time Conan grimaced a little and again, stayed silent.

"At first I thought you were just an incredible intelligent child. Since I know about _you_, that could be explained. It doesn't explain how you came to be _you_ though."

"And it's not like it's got anything to do with you either." Conan replied, his face closing off and the azure eyes becoming sharper. Why was the thief suddenly so interested in his past and how he became shrunk again?

"So?"

"So what?"

"It's not like I could tell it to someone. And I'm a curious person."

"... is that supposed to make me pour my heart out to you...?"

He couldn't believe Kid snorted. Surly he had misheard. Okay, so he had actually kind of often heard Kid make sounds one wouldn't expect, but normally there was a reason like on the Sky-ship, when Kid had been challenged to take the Lady Sky. Where he had accidentally tickled Kid when he tried to get to his Grapple hook gun.

"And by the way, Kid... Are you sure you can afford to have leisure conversations now?" Conan asked dryly, sometimes he wondered about Kids mental state. "I mean, the police won't be stuck down there forever, you know?"

Kid's laughter threw him off balance just as much as the jewel being thrown at him, which he barely caught. He had always been better with his feet than his hands. In the time he was busy fumbling for the jewel, Kid had swung himself over the fence that stood in the way of his escape.

"I suppose not." the thief shrugged his shoulders, standing on the edge "Well, first they would have to get themselves out of that sticky situation... Not that they would be able to catch me anyways, but I do worry about Nakamori-keibu's blood pressure. Better not to risk it." Conan clenched his teeth, with the fence between them he wouldn't be able to kick anything at kid, so he just opened his watch – more as a threat than anything else, since he didn't want to kill Kid by tranquilizing him and causing him to fall.

"Anyways, Tantei-kun... I will just have to keep an eye on you, to find out myself what brought your little problem on, right? See you soon" he called over his shoulder before stepping off the roof.

Straightening himself and being irritated that he fell for such a trick and let the thief escape unharmed he frowned after the white hang-glider.

"You're better off not even trying..." he sighed, not seeing the small dove with a microphone sitting behind him. Did that mean that from now on he had to watch out that this stupid thief didn't stick his hat-covered head into business that didn't concern him? Great, as if he didn't have enough problems for now.

Cradling the small brooch carefully in his small hands he made his way back to the police that were probably still running around.

* * *

><p>After he got to the police and had given the jewel back, telling them Kaitou Kid hat managed to escape yet again, his hand was grabbed in a tight grip. When he looked up he saw Ran scowling down at him. Uh-oh.<p>

"Conan-kun! You always disappear, making me worry." she knelt down beside him drawing him in a hug that made him blush and freeze.

"Stop worrying me so much. I know you like Kids heists but you always do reckless stunts. Leave Kid to the adults.

Ran... Awkwardly putting his hands around her (Small, too small to encircle her fully now) he whispered a soft apology.

"It just got really stuffy in there, I couldn't see anything. So I thought I would head outside to get fresh air and Kid was there!" in the end he raised his voice in (hopefully) childish excitement and waved his hands as good as he could before Ran loosened her hug and gave him a smile.

"Oh. So that's where you've been." She probably thought Kid had more or less handed the Jewel over to him, which wasn't exactly a wrong assumption.

Crisis averted for now.

When they headed home though, Conan couldn't help but feel followed.

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN:**

So... here is the next chapter. I decided to post my notices at the end of the chapter for now.

By the way, I'm hoping to make this a longer story, so it will probably progress very slowly. In case I got your hopes up for romance, that will still take a long time to show itself. This is mostly a Drama/Adventure Story.  
>For now I'm writing randomly at different chapters. I actually am up to chapter 6 and working on chapter 7. I've got some of the last chapters already written out too, though, as well as a few small parts I'm hoping to integrate.<br>Next update will be in a week :)

Next chapter title: The crime that led to the crime


	3. Chapter 3: Crime that led to the crime

_**Chapter 3: The crime that led to the crime**_

He didn't sleep that well. Actually not well at all. The feeling of being followed hat probably tickled his paranoid side a bit too much. Was it Kid? If so he hadn't really managed to distinguish him from the people that passed the Agency. Maybe Kid hadn't walked past at all and just kept a stake out with binoculars? Was it Kid at all? Or maybe he was just imagining being watched due to Kids words. But he did trust his instincts and he really wasn't convinced that it was just some kind of delusion. His senses had saved him a lot of time, so he would rather trust them this time too.

Tired he went to the bathroom, eyelids at half-mast only to rip them fully open when he – in his carelessness without knocking beforehand - opened the door to a still dressing Ran. Instantly blood shot to his head and he stammered an apology while slamming the door shut again.

Wide awake now he pressed the hands to his eyes and tried NOT to think of Ran standing half naked behind the door, all the while blushing from head to toe. Normally he was really careful. He didn't want Ran to kill him when he actually got around to telling her the secret. Bad enough she had forced him to bath with her on more than one occassion.

Right now he wanted to crawl in a hole and never come out. All this was Kids fault, because of his damn words and probably stalking.

Ran had a really nice body.

Not thinking about that. Think about … what had he been thinking about? Oh yes. Kid.

The door opening behind him made him stiffen again. Do not blush. Don't blush. You are a kid. Damn KID.

"M-morning Ran-nee-chan...!"

"Morning Conan-kun, breakfast will be ready soon."

She didn't suspect anything. Good. Quickly going into the bathroom and closing the door behind himself, he let himself sink to the floor.

"Sheesh..." yes, she didn't suspect anything. He would be so dead if she knew.

"What a mess."

Getting through his morning routine helped him calm down fully and return to his previous thoughts.

So. Kid probably knew he was Shinichi, since he more than once teased him by dressing up as his alternate self. He didn't know how he became Conan. That hadn't been an issue before, so what had changed? Why was Kid suddenly interested?

Frowning at his mirror image, while brushing his teeth he tried to find possible causes for the new behavior, but it eluded him. Maybe he had gotten curious after all the little instances that had piled up, the Mystery Train being one of the most prominent that had involved the thief directly. Thanks to that, Haibara was mostly safe now but it was still better not to take any risks.

Fact was, that Kid had said to him that he would try to find out on his own. That had probably been what Kid had wanted to tell him from the start and why he had put hints in his note, from which Conan had easily concluded that the thief would try to escape from the roof. Well, it wasn't like that was a new escape plan so it was rather easy to deduct or even just guess. Still, he must have known that Conan wouldn't reveal anything about the day he shrunk to him without sound reason. And Conan really didn't think Kid had any reason to inquire about his 'accident'.

Conan did know that Kid randomly seemed to check up on 'his' detectives. Sometimes he had even thought he saw someone suspicious. Since he had the Black Organisation after his hide he had become _very_ attuned to being watched and followed. It wasn't paranoia if there were people out to get you after all.

Spitting the toothpaste out and rinsing his mouth with water, he headed to the kitchen to take breakfast with Ran, since Kogoro was still asleep in his bed.

Swinging his backpack on his right shoulder and putting on his shoes he and Ran exited the house and parted ways. It wasn't long before Conan felt the hairs on his back stand up. Once again he could feel eyes on him and tried to find (without being obvious about it) the source by using reflections of cars and windows to no avail. Was that... Kid? Or had he incorrectly assumed that the danger had passed and some member of the Organisation was on his trail. Cold sweat broke out but he just hummed happily and continued walking. If it was the Organisation, they wouldn't do anything too obvious. That would make people aware of them and they had been trying to avoid that at any cost. Still, he got his handy out and send a quick message to Haibara 'Hey Haibara, I just wanted to tell you I will be by later to bring your homework. Hope you feel better soon!' that would keep Ai at home, just in case.

At the entrance of the school, he met up with Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko.

"Hey guys."  
>And thus, with a last fruitless glance over his shoulder, the torture begun again.<p>

* * *

><p>His life had become really stressful. Trying to juggle school life, shadowing the Police and Detectives after Kid, as well as his night life and the research that came with that, was a lot of work that left little time to sleep sometimes. And that didn't include Snake and the Organisation that was also after Pandora.<p>

It happened when he had checked up on the smallest member of the Task force and at the same time his probably biggest adversary. Conan Edogawa, or who he probably really was: Shinichi Kudou.

Kaito had to admit, that any heist with Conan or Shinichi was a lot more challenging and fun. It was rare that someone could anticipate his moves just as well as the small detective, or even force him to change the plans he had laid out as often as the kid did.

On occasion he did look what his opponents got up to in their free time. Well. Or he played some pranks on them for a bit while he was at it, if they were blond and stuck up and counted seconds.

Pranking Conan was practically impossible. The kid had to have some kind of abnormal ability that allowed him to sense criminals like a radar especially attuned to them.

It...would explain a lot. Especially how one person could get into so much trouble.

That being the case, he had been following Conan, keeping his eyes off the boy and keeping quite a lot of distance between them, since that seemed about the only way to escape the sharp eyes that could to pick him out of a crowd, sometimes even with perfect disguise. He usually tried to keep a little distance, because seriously... that soccer ball hurt.

More than once he had been involved with dangerous people, thanks to that little detective. People with very cold, murderous eyes, ones like Snake. And it became kind of obvious that Conan was trying to find out more about them, while at the same time trying to keep his head down and not to be noticed. For the bespectacled child that was more or less normal behavior, but what he had found out about Kudou Shinichi... that didn't fit. Kudou had never been a character that would back down or shy away from attention. For the teen-detective to go so far as to hide even from his closest companions like Mouri Ran, something must have really spooked him. Since Kudou was very careful that his few adult appearances never made it to the public, and Shinichi Kudou had practically been declared missing, there had to be something he was hiding from. It was the only explanation that made sense to Kaito. And because Kudou got involved in a lot of crimes, that meant... whatever the kid had gotten into this time was a lot bigger than the usual murder case he usually stumbled across on a daily basis.

That was why he had confronted the boy about it on the roof. He had not expected Kudou to actually tell him anything, but he had been a bit uncomfortable to just start digging in his life. He did, kind of, respect Kudou and his principle to help people no matter what, even though in most cases it was already too late. And despite the difficulties he now faced because of being in a child's body.

Still, he would probably not have started to dig around Kudou's life more than necessary (you had to know your enemy so it wasn't really surprising that Kaito had tried to learn the basics of the guy... and a bit more to be able to make a credible Kudou Shinichi act..) if he had not come face to dace with those suspicious people trailing his favorite detective. Well, it did seem as if the detective had shaken them off for now, yet there had been more than one occasion where their paths had crossed and Kaito would admit to being the slightest bit worried. And he was sure it wouldn't be the last time Conan encountered them, and it could always happen again that Kid would be pulled into the action again.

And that was the reason why he was now sneaking behind the shrunken detective while being disguised.

Which was – as he had more than once thought – actually stalking now that he planned to do it excessively and on one person, for reasons not entirely related to his night job.

Was that a new kind of low for him? Progressing to other crimes besides breaking & entering, stealing and impersonating? Illegal Gun possession, inappropriate use of fireworks, vandalism... ahh... and kind of a little bit of terrorism, if blowing up a power station and causing a blackout in a big area of Osaka counted as that. Maybe he shouldn't try to list his crimes, for the peace of his own mind.

Well, he had to admit that he had been curious for a long time by now, since it wasn't exactly normal to be deaged. Okay, he had his experiences with weird stuff, when Akako confronted him, but that was a completely other can of weird that had been opened. And he had always been more of a no risk no fun kind of guy. Many magic tricks were not easy or safe to learn. You had to have a sense of adventure and be quick on your feet. Being Kaitou Kid had only made his stage bigger, his performances so much more thought through. But it was still risky, especially since he painted a big target on himself due to his confrontation with the Organisation.

Well, he was sure whatever Kudou was hiding, he would be able to find out. There was nothing worse than being unprepared. And they did have a... more or less truce to help each other out if things actually went south, so he … should be prepared, just in case, right? Right. It had nothing to do with being curious. Nope. And even if... what was it people said? Curiosity killed the cat?

Oh well... Satisfaction brought it back.

* * *

><p><em>Well.<em> Kaito thought,_ it had been easier in my mind to follow Conan unseen, than it is in reality._

It seemed that the confrontation on the roof had provoked this: Conan's radar was fully working.

Already he's had to change his disguise thrice, hide behind several corners and even dive behind a waste-bin to avoid being detected. It wasn't really obvious. If he didn't already have a lot of know-how in the art of spying (not only) on the teen-toddler he would have been busted. Well, that and his own instincts of fight and flight, which had on several occasions saved him by a hair's breath.

Right now he was shadowing Conan from his home to the school. No suspicious other people around, as far as he could see. At the school entrance he left the detective and high tailed back to his own school by train. He was a bit late, but that couldn't be helped and since he happened to be late a lot (mostly setting pranks up or researching for a heist...) the teacher didn't even bother to reprimand him (the last time he had tried ended with his hair bright pink, but surly that wasn't the reason...). That would probably also explain the strained face his teacher was making and the stiff, nervous expressions his classmates wore, while shifting in their seats. Oh well.

Hiding a smirk he looked out of the window.

He would have to contemplate a bit more on how to find out Conan's secret. He wasn't sure if , just by following the boy long enough, he would get enough hints. But it wasn't really like he had another choice, he would have to follow Conan until he got another lead. So either the hints would accumulate and give him at least an idea how Kudou had been shrunk, or he would find another way.

The idea came to him later and he gleefully rubbed his hands. Since it was his specialty, why should he not look around that abandoned Manson in his free time one of these days. Mentally he noted that down. It was a small chance but would maybe bear more fruits than randomly stalking Conan (not that he would give up on that just yet...).

For now though...

Kaito's mouth corners twitched.

For now he would indulge his classmates expectation and cause some mayhem...

* * *

><p>When school was finally over and he parted ways with the Detective Boys, he did make a detour in hopes of drawing out whoever had been stalking him this morning.<p>

He was definitely being followed again, he was sure of it. His instincts were very reliable.

"Conan-kun!"

With fast beating heart he turned around. And sighed. Apparently the detective boys were his stalkers this time.

"We thought you were going to Ai-chan!" Ayumi complained with a frown on her face. "It's the wrong direction..."

"A-ah." that had given him quite a scare.  
>"I bet he's investigating on his own again." grumbled Genta and crossed his arms "What are you up to again? Is it a case?"<p>

"Even if it's a case, you can't just promise Ai-chan you will visit her and then leave her waiting when she's ill!" scolded the small girl "That's rude."

"Uhm..." thinking fast he rubbed his head. He still felt watched. Had it been the detective boys or was there someone else? "I was planning on buying some medicine for her before going to see her. The park is a shortcut there..."  
>"Ooh, I see!" at least Ayumi was smiling again "Well, let's go then."<p>

"Yes, yes..." great. Now he had three kids on his tail. When he was being followed by either Kid or the Organisation. Crap. He had just agreed to go with them to Haibaras house! Well, it wasn't like he could find some kind of excuse now to shake them off, they were already heading in the direction of the apothecary, while ignoring his presence. _Oh well...,_ he thought, _at least there is nothing wrong with children visiting their sick friend. As long as Haibara doesn't answer the door and is recognized, it should be OK..._

Casting a glance around to try and find anyone suspicious, he turned and followed them.

The figure, plastered behind a tree went unnoticed.

* * *

><p>As it was, they never even got as far as the apothecary. On the way there, they became witness to a mugging. The kids – exited for cases as they always were – ignored his shouting and ran after the thief, so he didn't have any other choice but to follow them. If only he had his skateboard with him!<p>

"Aw, man..." Mitsuhiko came to a stop, sweat dripping from the fast sprint. "Where did he go?"

Conan came to a stop, also out of breath and took in the surroundings.

"He probably used one of the abandoned buildings here to duck in and hide... besides that.." Conan turned to the kids "you do know it's dangerous to follow a criminal like that?! What would you do if he had taken a knife out?"

He really didn't like to be here, it was a rather abandoned part of the city, where everyone could hide out without problems. Broken glas littered the floor, as well as waste. It was not a good place for children to be.

A movement somewhere upstairs caused him to look up, just in time to throw himself on Mitsuhiko and out of the way of a brick stone.

"That bastard...!" jumping back on his feet he used the fire escape ladder that led up to the building where the brick stone had been thrown down from. Mugging was bad enough, Conan's priority – when he hadn't seen where the man had disappeared to – had been to get the children out of here quickly. He had heard about muggings happening in this area, and people who had tried to stop it getting hurt.

Now that he knew where the man probably was hiding he was not letting the criminal escape again, especially since that guy had tried to hurt one of his kids.

Getting up to where he was sure the stone was thrown, he found a lot of brick stones lying there.

"Tsk." looking around wildly he saw an open door. However, just to enter some place he had never been before after that guy had tried to brain them with a stone was just plain stupid. That was just waiting for being hit. Not going in would mean the man escaped.

A male voice screaming ended his thought process and let him run to the half closed door, pulling it open and running towards that voice. When he ran down some stairs he saw the man that had stolen the purse slowly backing away from a woman on the floor. Her clothes were rumbled and torn, blood had gathered and dried under her body. Flies were gathering all over her and the smell of rotten flesh lay pungent in the air.

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN:**

I'm currently a bit stuck at the 8th chapter. I hope I will get over it soon, since I haven't even written 1/4th of the story and would dearly like to get to the juicy stuff.  
>I do have some more small scenes and the next chapters are secured and will probably only be slightly edited before I update them on a weekly basis (so I'm safe until the end of December for now :P)<br>I do have a rough storyline already on paper and just need to fill in the gaps and details (which is where I have problems mostly :D)  
>Well, I do hope you liked that chapter and I would love to hear your opinion on it :3<p>

If you want to know of my progress, I will try to update my profile to keep you up to date :)

Big thanks to all the people that bookmarked my Story and a special thanks to my first reviewer Tobina!

P.S.: Does anyone know how I make the lines that split the text? I would love to seperate my AN from the Story a bit more...


	4. Chapter 4: Evidence

_**Chapter 4: Evidence**_

* * *

><p>Even from where he was standing in shock, his mind was already processing what he had in front of him. He vaguely remembered a few days ago that she had been reported missing in a newspaper. On the photo in the paper she had long, dark (you couldn't tell the color from the black and white photo back then) hair, dark eyes and a determined smile on her face. Right now she was lying on her back, her brown hair like a halo surrounding her face. There were several stab wounds, that would explain the blood that had pooled under her. It was a bizarre crime scene, despite the obvious violence there was something almost... peaceful in the way her eyes were closed and despite the stab wounds it didn't look as if there had been a fight at all. It made the crime scene so much more horrible in Conan's eyes. This was definitely not a normal murder case.<p>

Snapping out of his thoughts when he heard children voices he snatched his Detective Badge from his chest pocket.

"Ayumi-chan! Mitsuhiko, Genta! Stop, you can't come here!"  
>He could hear their voices, confused and disgruntled, unwilling to give up on a crime. But this... yes they had seen crime scenes before, sometimes even bloody. But he didn't want to expose to this sort of violence, this smell. They had never really smelled a rotting body before and he hoped they never would, at least not until they were much, much older.<p>

"This is no joke. Please guys, this is important... Listen ... I need you to call the police and show them the building we are in. Do not come here."  
>"You just want the fame for yourself again, don't you!?" Genta's angry voice was cut off when Conan continued to talk right over him.<p>

"I'm not. You... we have seen a lot of scary stuff. This is different. Just do as I say! Please... I promise I'll explain later..." maybe it was his please, or maybe they could tell from his voice, but they complied. The cloying smell was making even him feel sick, so he got out a tissue to press it over his mouth and nose. It wouldn't do to actually sick up all over the crime scene. He was used to fresher crimes and this smell was horrible.

"I hav- I haven't done this. It wasn't me!"_ Oh, right_, Conan remembered, _I wasn't alone, this guy is here too._

The legs of the man in question had given out under him, he was shaking all over. For a man who had been trying to brain them with stones, he seemed to have a weak stomach when he actually really saw a real crime.

It didn't take long for the police to arrive, but Conan had problems calming the mugger down and keeping him here, so he had kind of maybe knocked the guy out when he tried to run. And then he had carefully looked over the real crime scene.

Megure had a really fierce look on his face, and when Takagi entered, Conan heard something that sounded an awful lot like "Another one"

Did that mean that this was not a single murder/rape victim? The thought let Conan shudder. Was there someone around here a serial killer? It would explain the disturbing evidence he had found.

When he had investigated the crime scene on his own before the arrival of the police he had made several discoveries. The girl had to be at least several days dead, which conceded with the newspaper declaring her missing. The cause of death was probably strangulation, since the blood vessels in her eyes had burst, indicating that she didn't get enough oxygen before she died. She had marks on her throat, that would fit her tie, even though said tie had been loosened and been retied neatly after her death. Despite several stab wounds there was not much blood on the floor. The killer had probably – Conan very much hoped so – only stabbed her once she had already been dead. He hoped that the rape would have happened afterwards too, since she didn't have any signs of being held down. That she had been raped, Conan deducted from her ripped underwear that lay in a heap a few feet from here.

Looking her over once more he noted that the murderer must have incapacitated her, since there weren't any defense wounds on her body, and her posture seemed almost tranquil, if you were willing to overlook the blood and puncture wounds covering her. Her hair seemed...almost like it had been combed after her death. The way it was lying on the floor was too smooth to be natural. Also, despite rips and blood, her clothes had been straightened after the deed. Another thing that was bothering him was her make up. It wasn't running anywhere, she should have been crying, being strangled, or even dragged anywhere against her will. From this he could come to two conclusions: The victim had been incapacitated beforehand or the murderer had applied the make up afterwards, since nothing was blurred or smudgy. The missing defense wounds indicated that the former had most likely happened. That, of course, didn't rule out that the murderer had cleaned her up afterwards. The longer Conan stared at the crime scene, the more likely he found it that it was a combination of both.

And in her hand, she held a light pink flower. To be exact, it was a Carnation. He had looked the meaning of that flower up in the internet by phone, but couldn't really link the meaning of the flower to the picture of the crime. Carnations were worn on weddings, Mother's, Teacher's or St. Patrick's Day. It wasn't like the crime had happened on one of these days, so he had looked at the meaning of the flower itself. Pink carnations were the symbol of a mother's undying love. He would keep it in mind but he doubted the girl that lay dead on the floor was a mother.

There was still something niggling his mind but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

* * *

><p>The mugger had been apprehended, but noone was really bothering with him. Right now Conan was sitting in a room at the police headquarters and was being questioned about how he had come about the body. It wasn't like he had much to tell, because this time the crime had happened a long time before he had stumbled over the crime scene itself. It wasn't like normal, where he had the chance to observe the people and surroundings before the crime itself happened.<p>

Like this, it wasn't nearly enough for him to be able to find the culprit right away. And the police was making it very difficult for him to find out about the previous victims, since, to quote Shiratori-keibu 'children should leave that to the police'. Despite being helpful to the police in the past two years, no police officer would want to drag a child into an investigation if it could be helped. Especially a rape case. Oh well, it wasn't as if he wasn't used to going around the adults by now. It made the cases just a bit harder than they would otherwise be.

The only progress he had made was when Takagi-keibu had left him for a moment to get him some drinks, it was then that he had the chance to actually look inside the folder. He quickly snapped some pictures of the documents with his phone and just managed to look over a few pages, as well as see a photo of the first and second crime scene. The first one had been in a forest, the second one on a parking lot. When he heard steps he quickly put everything back in order and leant back, accepting his soft drink (why couldn't he have coffee?) with a quiet "Thanks".

"Well, I think that will be all Conan-kun." Takagi had adopted a gentle voice, if Conan had been a real child it would have been appropriate. As it was he only agreed and was led outside where his friends were waiting.

From their eager faces he could tell they wanted to bombard him with questions but were waiting until Takagi was out of earshot. Oh dear.

"So?" Genta had crossed his arms and tried to look at Conan with an intimidating glare. "Out with it."

For a moment Conan hesitated, it seemed for a moment to long because Ayumi and Mitsuhiko soon joined with fierce stares. Or what they thought of as fierce.

"All right, all right. I'll tell you when we arrive at the Professors."

Making a hand motion to get them to follow him he resigned. They would only pester him or get into trouble if he tried to keep them completely out. It would be hard enough to keep them from investigating, he probably shouldn't mention that is was a serial killer.

When they arrived at Agasa's house and were let in, they settled – as usual – in the living room.

"It's not so much the crime itself." he started to explain when they slowly invaded his personal bubble, staring menacing again, "After I followed the mugger, you also heard him scream right?" pausing he waited for them to nod "That was because he stumbled onto another crime. The girl that has been murdered has been dead for several days. She... wasn't quite intact, it... something like that is hard to stomach." Seeing flies crawling all over and seeing grubs wiggle in her flesh wasn't something he wanted them to see anytime soon. If ever.

"And the smell.."  
>"Whaaat? Bah, we could have totally handled that." Genta begun to complain, but a door opening interrupted the conversation. Ai entered, carrying a tablet with steaming cups. She had a face mask on, likely pretending to have a cold. With the voice changer inside the mask she could change her voice to a huskier tone and pretend to have a sore throat.<p>

"Don't be so hasty." she said,her cool unflappable gaze settling on Genta before drifting over the rest of the detective boys "What Edogawa-kun did was very kind."

"But we have seen crime scenes before..." Mitsuhiko frowned.

"Yes, however those were fresh crimes, as Edogawa-kun has explained." she settled the tray on the table and passed the cups around "If you smell and see a rotting body once, you will never forget it."

Conan shuddered. He wouldn't have told them in such a blunt way but it seemed to subdue them a bit. Or maybe they just trusted Ais opinion more than his own, probably because he had tried to keep them out of trouble more than once (sometimes he wondered if it wouldn't be better to just take them with him, however he despised putting them in danger so at least he had to try to keep them from it, right?)

"It's enough that he will have to live with the image. Don't go searching for the cruelties of the world, if you can avoid it." they would soon enough come and find them anyways, was what Conan could hear in her voice. Finally her eyes settled on Conan "It was kind of him to spare you that experience for now."

Shuffling her feet Ayumi glanced to Conan and the two other boys mumbled a soft excuse. The depressing mood was canceled by Agasa, who came into the room carrying Game controls "So, I've invented a new game! Who wants to try it out?" Ai and Conan looked on in amusement as the children set aside their worries and cheered up almost instantly. How nice it would be if they could also return to that carefree lifestyle...

"So? Was that all there was to it?" slowly taking a sip from her cup she looked at Conan, when she was sure that the kids were suitable distracted.

"Mhh. Not really..." pulling out his phone he looked at the pictures he had taken in a hurry "It's serial murder and rape. Targets young girls or woman, brown haired, slim build." he turned the phone slightly to show her.

"Well... for now there is not much we can do about that..." he frowned "the culprit is careful not to leave any kind of forensic evidence behind. The flowers could be a starting point maybe, he has to get them somewhere..." it was the feeling of Ai's narrowed eyes on him that made him stop rambling in a whisper and look up "Huh?"

"I meant when you send me that cryptic message this morning forcing me to stay at home!"

Uh-oh. Right, there was that thing too...

"A... ahaha.. right... of course." clearing his throat a bit he continued "No, I just had a feeling I was being followed. I didn't see any of the Crows though." at Ai's frown he added "It is... kind of possible that it is only Kid."

"Kid."

"Yes, we had a... uh... conversation."

"You send me a message because of Kid." she didn't sound impressed at all, her eyes narrowing.

"Ehr... I wasn't exactly sure at that time but... yeah."

"Who is stalking you now." Conan tried not to fidget. When he thought about it maaaaybe he had overreacted a bit? He _was_ relatively sure it was Kid after all.

"... I wouldn't call it stalking... …. yet." if it indeed was Kid. "Since I wasn't 100% sure I thought it was safer for you to stay at home..."

"Hm." she took another sip, all the while staring at him in her creepy, evil, scientist way. He knew that tactic. Using silence to make the person who was interrogated talkative, he knew it well. He still fell for it.

"Weeeell... it seems he... somehow got curious about my age."

"... Kid."

"Yes..."

She set down her Teacup.

"So you are telling me that there is a slim chance some of _them_ could be trailing you, although you are already almost convinced it could be Kid. Who is stalking you, because he want's to know how you.." she lowered her voice slightly "shrank."

"Seems that way?"

"How could he even know about that!?" as always, the possibility of anyone finding out about their situation – someone who wasn't close to them like Hattori or his parents – always agitated her almost beyond reason.

"It's fine. He's just in a position where he got confronted with me more often and has seen me act more like myself... I think he just got curious for some reason and instead of just going behind my back, he decided to inform me that he's invading my personal life more than he already does." idiot thief. Clenching his fists he thought about he many times when Kid had actually had the audacity to dress up as his now 19 year old self. On the other hand, that same stupid thief had saved him on quite a few occasions. Haibara too, if they counted the mystery-express.

"It's going to be all right. We do know he's not with them, after all. Too flashy and dressed in white, not really their style." trying to loosen the mood got Haibara to relax but at the same time she shot him one of her I-know-what-you-are-trying-to-do unfazed looks.

"... only you Kudo-kun." and what was that supposed to mean?!  
>"Well, it just means you have to be careful not to give him any hints. We wouldn't want to pull him into the situation, who knows what that idiot thief will do." she didn't exactly seem to care much about his welfare, maybe a bit, but she was probably thinking more along the lines of him doing a stupid, conspicuous stunt that brought unnecessary attention to the two of them.<p>

"Anyways, we probably won't have to worry all that much about it, it's not something that can be easily discovered..." there was a silent 'or we would already be dead' that Ai didn't have to say out loud.

"Ah. Well it's probably better if you hide out a bit longer until I know for sure. And maybe look out, that he doesn't go snooping around here, I wouldn't put it past him and your basement would be kind of hard to explain." and give the thief maybe a bit too much information about their situation.

Her almost gleeful, anticipating look made him shudder again. Maybe he wouldn't have to worry about that, instead he should worry about what Ai would do to the thief if he tried to enter her sanctuary...

* * *

><p>Later that evening, when the kids had headed home he used the chance to call Ran with his voice changer.<p>

She quickly picked up, like always, calling out his name in an exited happy voice that made him melt just a little bit on the inside (thought he tried not to show it since Ai's cool gaze seemed to be fixed on him) "Shinichi!" something on his face must have given him away since Haibara turned away, a Cheshire-Cat smile lingering in the corners of her mouth. Tsk.  
>"Yo Ran, been a while! How are you doing?" those chat's were the only way he could be near her right now.<p>

"Mou. If you would just call more often...! I'm fine, thanks for asking. How about you? Still stuck with your case?"

"Mh, yes it's a hard one..."

"Must be if it got you stumped for such a long time.." she giggled fondly "Still... you've been missing out so much. Not only school stuff..." after that she rambled a bit on the line about her days at school and what his classmates got up to. He listened to her, making a few appropriate humming noises when they were required.

"So will you tell me? What this big case is about?"

"Ah... I can't yet, I'm sorry. As I said we are still pretty much stuck at the same place..." yeah in a child's body "And any leads we had mostly led to nowhere. It's... frustrating to be honest." his grumbling made her sigh in disappointment. The words had to be familiar to her by now.

"Mou... If you are stuck, maybe a break would do you some good to clear your head?" she sounded painfully hopeful "You could come visit. Or go to school, if you haven't forgotten your classroom and school building by now." it was a bit of a desperate try to sound teasing, but she couldn't quite manage to erase the longing and reprimand.

"I know." he sighed "But I'm sorry, I can't just come and visit. Right now I'm a bit too far away." like a few years apart "I would... I would love to come back but this case... it's pretty important..." he tried hard to keep his resentment and frustration at bay and only leave slight embarrassment in his tone. Even before he had not been bad at this, but over the past two years he wondered if his mothers acting ability had rubbed off on him more than he had thought before.

Getting uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking, he decided to end it for today.

"Well, anyways. I have to go now...I'll talk to you soon, again. Take care!"

"Mou, Shinichi!"

Ran heaved a disappointed sigh.

"Stupid detective-otaku. He hung up again."

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN:**

So, now we have another case for Conan. I'll warn you now that this case will probably take a while...

As for everything else, I'm still stuck at chapter 8, though I have started to write a bit more on the later chapters, so it's not like I didn't make any Progress at all. In fact, the end of the Story is pretty much written out and will only be slightly altered later on. I'll probably add a word count in my Profile next...

The parts I'm mostly stuck is writing out Conans deductions or Kaito's heists (those especially. I know next to nothing about Magic and tricks and as a scientist I don't just want to say 'it happened like that' without knowing how he really did it. So... yeah. Stuck at planning a heist ._. if anyone has a few ideas or tipps to get me started I would be greatful...)

Anything else bothering you about my Story? Found a grave mistake? Please share and I will try my best to correct it ;)

Until next week, with Chapter 5: Extending a Hand

P.S.: I've just realised that takes out any Special characters, which i have previously used to seperate Scenes =_= I will have to go over every chapters again and add them... meh.


	5. Chapter 5: Extending a hand

_**Chapter 5: Extending a hand**_

Going home a short while after his phone call, he arrived only to find an irate Ran chopping the ingredients for dinner. Uh-oh. She wasn't just irate, she seemed furious. Her mutterings contained 'Shinichi' and 'Idiot' and 'stupid cases' a whole lot, so it really wasn't hard to guess what was wrong. Well, it was no wonder. Over two years of waiting and all to often he ended the call with some kind of distraction or saying there was a case. Conan supposed it had been a long time coming.

"H-Hey Ran-nee-chan..."

When she looked up her eyes were spitting mad, however the look changed when she saw Conan standing in the kitchen door, wide eyed. It seemed to soften her anger, at least for a bit.

"Welcome back, Conan-kun. How is Ai-chan doing?"

"Ah... f-fine. Well, she's still sick but... she's doing better...?" he mentally gave himself a shake, he didn't like it that Ran was angry with him, however he shouldn't let him shake him so much that it affected his performance with Conan. Better let her get off some of that steam.

"Ne, ne, are you all right?" he knew she wasn't but over the two years, he had come to the conclusion that his mothers acting abilities had rubbed off on him, at least a little. Honing that ability over two years he had kind of perfected the role of a kid by now. And this was the only way he could still comfort her, since he was the cause of her feelings it was only fair if he at least tried to make it better.

"You seem scarily angry..."

"Ah." Ran turned back to the vegetables she was cutting and probably cut them a lot harder than required, judging from the sound the knife made. He had to suppress a flinch, Ran could be very, very scary in her anger.

"It's nothing Conan-kun."

"... it doesn't look like nothing..." his subdued voice did nothing to calm the sudden anger as the knife was practically stabbed in the chopping board.

"I said it's nothing, Conan!" her sharp voice actually caused him to take a step back. Normally she didn't get that angry at him as a child. Any only in very rare cases did she drop the -kun from his name.

Since Ran probably saw his movement out of the corner of her eyes, she deflated and turned to him in regret, her voice lowering to a normal volume.

"I'm not angry at you Conan-kun." she said, going to him and giving him a hug. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have raised my voice at you like that. It isn't your fault..."

But it was. He was making her incredible angry, unhappy and miserable. Even now he could feel her slightly trembling, even while she was trying so hard to hide it from his childlike self. Reaching around her he returned the hug she was giving him and put his head on her shoulder. Whenever it became like this he felt miserable, but under no condition was he allowed to show it. Hiding his face like that gave him a small respite from acting, since Ran wouldn't be able to see the emotions churning in his eyes.

"Was Shinichi-nii-chan mean to you?" and all he did was lying to her face, but what else could he do? He couldn't take a temporary antidote, since Haibara wouldn't give one to him. And she wouldn't, not for quite some time. So the only times he would turn back would be for a short period, when she was testing another prototype, and even that got more and more dangerous since it stressed his body to turn back and forth. That he was willing to take it despite the risks was a testament of how much Ran meant to him, and how much he despised being forced to stay away from her.

The hug from Ran got a little too tight for comfort, but he stayed silent, willing to endure a little discomfort if it meant that Ran would cheer up at least a little.

"It's... it's not that..." now she sounded heartbroken, which was even worse than her angry spiel that had probably covered the core of her feelings.

"I just miss him, that idiot case-addicted detective." when she got like that, the need to confess everything to her was nearly overwhelming. Only the thought of her getting hurt and killed by the Crows was steadying his iron will to not put her in harms way. He had thought about every possibly way to tell her his secret, but … he didn't want her to have the same pressure on her shoulders. To watch her every word, every action concerning him, while worrying. She was too honest. And so overly protective that she would put her live in danger if there was a chance that Conan was in danger. Hattori alone was already dangerous, but Ran interacted with him on a daily basis and would have to control her every action to him. And it would put her far too much in harms way, and that was something he couldn't accept. She already faced too much danger just by being around him, he didn't want to pull her into the dirty business with a criminal syndicate. Additionally he didn't want to turn her world upside down, destroying her almost naive and innocent world outlook, where ghosts and UFOs existed. He much preferred her to be scared about those, than the painfully real danger lurking in humans.

When she released him, he could only stand there without saying a word, his throat closed up so tight that he had problems swallowing.

"I'm sorry Conan-kun, really, it's nothing. Dinner will be ready soon, why don't you watch TV or something?" her voice was trembling, but she smiled with slightly wet eyes and he nodded and left her alone. By now he knew that she needed to compose herself again, even though he hated to leave there was nothing he could say or do to help her. Not while he was Conan.

Later that night when he came by her room, he could hear her sobbing in her room behind closed doors. For a while he stood in front of her room, a hand half reached out, listening to the sound that he was responsible for. Letting his hand fall, he turned and silently went to his and Kogoros room. Sleep evaded him.

* * *

><p>The next morning he got up a lot earlier, after a night of not really sleeping much and feeling like the ass of the world, and made breakfast (it was not a great one, but this much he could do despite not being a great cook). Normally Ran was up before him, but he really didn't know how to cheer her up and wanted to do her some good as the little brother figure she saw him. It was also for the reason that he could head to school a lot earlier than before, thus either escaping whoever was watching him (Kid.) or having more time to actually find out whom the person (Kid.) was disguising as. If it actually was Kid, which he still wasn't sure yet. It wasn't like Kid had outright said he would stalk him from now on, although it was heavily implied in the 'I will have to keep my eyes on you'.<p>

The feeling of being followed continued the next few days. Sometimes it was less strong, other times he was sure that someone was in his direct vicinity and that he couldn't find the person let him break out in cold sweat. The only thing that kept him calm was the mantra of 'It's only Kid, Kid doesn't hurt anyone' and the fact, that he hadn't seen anyone from the Black Organisation. What he had often thought he had spied, where those white doves that kept Kid company. It did settle his nerves a bit, since it was in part a confirmation that Kid was spying on him.

… it was kind of weird that he was actually relieved that it was only an internationally known thief that was spying on him. Didn't Kid have something like a private life of his own? Right now, Conan really couldn't see it.

Still, despite his spy being Kid, that didn't mean it wasn't annoying as hell. Since he even begun to loose sleep considering that, even after the feeling of being watched ended, he still felt deeply unsettled. It must be because he just wasn't used to being studied for such a long period of time. As a child one could just often avoid the attention of others, especially adults. As a result he had lost more sleep than necessary. And he was cranky because of it. Well, maybe partly because of his last talk to Ran too.

When he got out of the house once again to go to school – this time with his skateboard – nothing stood out at all. It begun after a while that he was feeling like he was watched, so he hopped on the board and decided to skate fast using the in-build turbos. If it was indeed Kid, he would have to keep up somehow.

After two streets he stopped abruptly, watching his surroundings carefully. While trying to look as if he was looking for something in a toy-store window and he had stopped because it had gabbed his attention.

He smirked slightly when he found what he was looking for and just when his eyes found the reflection of the person, that person turned around and walked in he other direction. Yeah, like that would work Kid.

Hopping on his board, feeling thrilled he went after him and rather quickly caught up.

"Ne, ne, Onee-san!" he gave her (or him) one of his 100-watt-smiles and could almost see the 'Crap!' written in the hard to read pokerface of Kid. If he squinted really hard.

"Aren't you going the wrong way? Did you get lost?"

"Huh? Oh, no, no. I'm not lost, why do you ask?"

"It's just because of your uniform. Don't you have to head to school?" He smiled angelic and could swear that the Person – he was to 95% sure it was Kid – was actually beginning to sweat a little. He fingered his watch and saw the eyes – indigo like the thief, probably didn't have the time to change contacts or hadn't anticipated Conan getting so close – making an aborted movement to it.

"I have a free period first thing in the morning, so I was just looking around a bit..." not a bad excuse.

"Ah, so... is that Tantei Highschool you go to? Because Ran-nee-chan goes to the same school! Do you know her? She's awesome! Which class do you go to?"

"Yes, that's right. I'm sorry but I do not know Ran-san. I'm in 3A."

The probability of the blond girl being Kid raised to 97% "Ah, is that so." he blinked up at Kid, this time smirking "Well, you should probably head home then. You did forget to change your winter uniform for the summer one. Ran-nee-chan said she could finally change it today!"

"Wh-oh yes! I forgot about that..." bingo! 100% that this was Kid. _Like hell you forgot._ Kid hadn't known when the uniforms would change at Tantei High, and since Ran had her winter uniform on yesterday, and the disguise had to be changed in a hurry he hadn't had enough time to think about it and take it into consideration.

"Cut the chase." he really wasn't impressed. Putting his hands in his pockets he dryly looked up to Kid.

"It's not that you forgot. Because tomorrow will be the day that the uniform changes for Tantei High. Besides, you turned the other direction when you saw me watching you, you reacted to the watch – which should by now be instinct to you – and …." he grinned "You have the exact same eye color. Forgot the contact lenses?" he snorted slightly "I don't know what you hope to archive by following me, but it's annoying."

"Hmpf. All right, all right." Kid slightly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, "You got me, Tantei-kun."

"It won't help you to follow me."

"Maybe, maybe not. That still remains to be seen, right?"

"No." it was no use trying to capture Kid now. There was no evidence, even if he caught him. Besides, they did have some kind of truce outside of heists.

"Well, it's not like I have any other leads that reveal your secret."

"Ever considered that I don't want you to know?"

"Considered and decided not to pay attention to it." came the unrepentant reply with that infuriating smirk. Conan could almost feel the vain on his forehead start to throb and a headache starting to rise. That, added to his already bad mood and the sleepless nights before made him snap at the thief.

"I don't poke around your private life whenever I please either, even if I could! Do me the same courtesy!"

"Hey, hey." Kid looked at him a little wide eyed as Conan rubbed his eyes.

"You are stressing me out with it." he unwillingly admitted to the thief, looking to the floor "and I have enough going on, please don't add to it." glancing up he saw the thief watching him and obviously considering his words earnestly.

"That... was not my intention." actually, Kaito hadn't realized how paranoid Conan was. Now that he thought about it – and that was just another puzzle piece in the mystery of Shinichi Kudou – Conan's words meant he was already at least occasionally stalked by someone, who most probably wanted to do him harm. The thought settled ill with the thief.

He was right though, Kaito didn't have the right to just poke and prod around the detectives life. He had hesitated in the beginning, because of that. It was something else if it concerned a stakeout to gather info for his next heist. As said, those were still fair game for both of them.

That being the case, it still didn't feel right to leave the little detective alone with his problem. Yes, he was sure that there were people already helping him, like that detective from Osaka who stuck to Conan like glue whenever they met up. But if Conan was really involved in something dangerous – and it had to be if the detective was being so careful not to be spotted – then it wouldn't hurt to have another person watching his back. Especially one whom noone would suspect to actually watch out for the little detective.

"Hm." scratching his chin Kaito decided to change his strategy – which was risky, and kind of idiotic and he had to actually put a lot of trust in Kudou's sense of honor and justice – but would at least make him scratch off the creepy stalker from his crime list.

"Well, if that's the case, how about becoming friends first and when you are comfortable, you tell me?" blinking down at the child detective he quite enjoyed the stunned disbelieving look on the kids face.

"Huh?"

"Yeah. That's a great idea." Kaito grinned, seemed like Kudou's brain had just fried "Glad you think so too."

"Wait, wait, wait. What?"

"Friends. You know, a relationship of mutual affection between two people."

"I know what friendship is! Are you crazy?" at Kids grin he hastily added "Rhetoric question." really. What was Kid thinking, proposing a stupid idea like that!

"You do know you are a criminal?"

"Details."

"And I'm a detective!"

"Really? Hadn't noticed."

"..."

"Okay, maybe I did."

"You are a criminal!"

"Been there, done that."

"Urgh. You are not taking this serious at all...You being a thief and me being a detective, means that I'm obligated to turn you in!"

"Would have to know who I am first. And have evidence..!" Kid singsonged. That guy was mental. There was no other explanation.

"I could trick you and-"

"Bullshit." Conan narrowed his eyes. Was Kid honestly implying...

"I totally could."

"But you won't." Kid suddenly looked at him with solemn eyes, that Conan couldn't answer for a while. "You wouldn't try to turn me in outside a heist." Conan didn't quite agree with that. If he actually found proof that could be handed in to the police, there was no guarantee for Kid that Conan wouldn't do it. But damn the thief for probably being right. Catching Kid outside of a heist did feel like cheating. If Kid had been any other criminal, things would be different. But during those two years Conan had seen a lot of Kids compassion and integrity. Like when he had saved the dog of Sonoko's uncle, despite being his rival. Or pushing Genta out of the way, to keep him from harm. Returning the Memory Egg to it's rightful owner. There were many instances, but also more personal situations, when Kid had helped him out directly. Even if he had, on occasion, twisted Kids arm a bit to get him to do his part. And more than once he had let Kid go,even if he had the means to try and capture him.

Yes, Kid really was a strange criminal, stealing and returning, hurting noone (well, except maybe the Task Force's pride) and keeping others from harm. Okay, he did a lot of things against the law but Conan was not completely innocent either, with his illegal identity. And Conan did sometimes have to vandalize a little for the greater good. Or break somewhere in. And maybe his 'Kick-Stuff-At-Target-First' and 'Ask-Questions-Later' wasn't all that nice of a method either but every time he kicked it at a person he was normally 98% sure it was the perpetrator. Or had another important reason, like kicking a weapon out of their hands. So yeah, maybe he had more than once kicked a few teeth loose with that stunt, but at least he was giving dentists some work to do. But he was being distracted from the main point he had been contemplating.

No, he probably really wouldn't turn Kid in outside of a heist, except if Kid really committed a serious crime. That didn't mean he had to tell the thief that. No way in hell he would tell him that. During heist though, that would be a different matter.

"... I still won't tell you."

"Maybe not." Kid agreed "But you will have someone who is willing to listen at least."

Conan snorted "Yeah right. And how do you suppose I will do that. Stand on a roof and shout? Besides, it's not like I don't have other people to talk to..." even though the offer actually made him loose a bit of the anger that had build over the days that Kid had spend stalking him.

At this, even Kaito had to chuckle at the mental picture of him rushing to Conan standing on a roof like superman for a little heart to heart talk between friends. And yes, Conan did have friends that he could talk to, but it never hurt to have another ear willing to listen.

"Well, maybe you have people who are willing to listen..." Kid agreed and considered Conan out of the corners of his eyes. He had often thought that despite their differences they did have a lot in common. "... but do they actually understand?" that actually pierced Conan to the core. As much as they tried, Hattori, Haibara, his parents, he didn't think anyone could totally understand. Not really.

Hattori, never having been in this situation, tried, but in the end failed. He was a good friend, great even, distracted him when he got depressed and did his best to help him out. His teasing got annoying sometimes, but he had a very kind heart and Conan appreciated having someone who would listen to him, especially when there was a case.

Haibara, while being in the same situation he was, didn't actually have anything to return to. No, instead she seemed to prefer living her life as a child again and Conan wouldn't begrudge her that. Due to this, she sometimes couldn't understand his almost desperate longing to return to himself. While she still tried to get the antidote for him, he had once guiltily thought that she wasn't giving her all out of fear of being discovered if he should get back to his old self before taking down the Organisation. Of course, he new that this was not true at all, knew that Haibara felt guilty about it and actually wanted to help him. But he knew that this fear was not unfounded. If he actually managed to return, he would draw attention from the Organisation and they would try to eliminate him. Intellectually he knew that it would be more intelligent to only return to his body when they had actually defeated them, but his heart couldn't seem to agree.

His parents didn't understand at all, but were willing to support him in whatever way he needed them to and he loved them because of it. Whatever he decided to do, he knew he could count on them.

Subaru-san, while knowing about him (at least Conan was sure he knew), wasn't so close as to actually have such a talk. And Conan didn't quite trust him yet to let the guy that far in his private life. He respected him as an ally and he trusted him to keep an eye on Haibara, but he still wouldn't call them friends.

There were others too, like Eisuke who was now not even in Japan (and was far too interested in Ran for this kind of talk, or Sera (though he wasn't quite sure if she really knew, just her behavior indicated that she saw more in him than a kid), as well as several decreased persons who wouldn't exactly be able to talk back. A few others like Takagi were suspicious, but didn't know about his real identity for sure and he would work to keep it like that. Thus he couldn't talk to them. It was better that way, the fewer people knew about him, the less dangerous it would be.

He had known that Kid was very intuitive and had a keen insight into humans, but his words had hit the nail on the head. Swallowing with his suddenly dry mouth, Conan added a mental point to Kid and stayed silent, unwilling to admit that the thief was right, though is silence probably already proofed the menace right.

"Mah, just think about it..." shrugging his shoulders, Kid straightened his skirt (still a weird thought...) "But I can promise I'm a very attentive listener and wouldn't judge you... well, not more than a critic deserves anyways." the suddenly impish tone had Conan almost choking.

"Moron. Still got the problem of not being able to talk..." rolling his eyes he lazily rolled besides Kid "It's not like we have the time of the world when we meet at heists. Besides, I don't want to talk to you on heists, where I'm meant to capture you. It's not going to happen."

"I thought I could come visit you sometimes..." this time Conan did choke and stared incredulously at Kid. Soon after that look turned annoyed and Kid quickly raised his hands in defense "Not like I did today and yesterday and... well the days before. Still in disguise, sure, but I would make myself blatantly visible to you. How about that?"

It was not really what Conan wanted, but he was a little afraid that Kid wouldn't be offering him a better deal.

"How?"

"Hm?"

"How would I know it's you?" the detective sounded tired and resigned and Kaito actually had expected to meet with a lot more resistance. Kaito did kind of pity the boy a bit, he was not at his best right now, anyone with eyes could see the dark circles under Kudou's eyes, but he couldn't say he was happy he didn't have to fight the boy on it.

"Ah, let's see..." thinking fast, he looked up to the sky "How about wearing a bracelet with an Amethyst? And leaving the contact lenses out. Male. Light brown hair. Name is... ah.. Kaito Ishikawa" it was tempting to actually appear as Kaito Kuroba, but that was a bit too risky even for Kaito. Yes he wanted to try, and he would do so by showing some trust in Kudou. Not offering his hands to be shackled and walking into the prison himself. It wouldn't take long for Tantei-kun to make the connection. Besides, he didn't want to be confused with Shinichi by Ran-chan. That could hurt.

At Conan's dry look he added a confused "What?"

"Kaito Ishikawa? Really? Ishikawa like Ishikawa Goemon and Kaito after Kaitou Kid? Could you be more obvious?" when Kaito opened his mouth Conan sighed "No, don't. Please, don't answer that." shaking his head he cast an unreadable stare over the girl walking beside me. Kinda creepy to know it was actually a guy underneath. Note to self: Kid shaved his legs. And he could pull of the slender legs of a high-school girl.

… this was no something he wanted to spend time thinking on any further so he ripped his eyes away.

"Oh well, whatever.." he muttered "It's not like I can stop you..." admittedly, he was very curious about talking to Kid on a regular basis, even if he was anxious and hesitant at the same time because of it. Regular contact with a criminal still didn't seem all right to him. And he was still unbalanced by the strange offer Kid had made, when he had confronted the thief he had never imagined the conversation to lead to this result.

"Okay!" pumping his fist in the air Kid looked like a cheering high-school girl. Creepy.

Next thing he knew were soft lips on his cheek, a mischievous voice full of laughter adding "It's a date then!" causing people to stare and himself to flush red.

That... what had he been thinking?! Standing frozen and with his brain fried for a second time this morning, Conan wondered just what kind of evil pact he had just signed. The sound of the church bells ringing ripped him out of his stunned state, after a quick look to his watch he was left cursing and started to run "I'm late!"

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN:**

Well, right now I've got a hard time writing at all, because I'm at my sisters watching her cats. And anytime I try to start to write something the cat comes to me and nudges my arm. Almost deleted my chapter *cough*

Besides that, I'm still a bit stuck on chapter 8/9, makes me a bit nervous because now it's only 2-3chapters until we get there, but hopefully I will get over it in those 2-3 weeks.

Until next time with Chapter 6: Sealing the deal!


	6. Chapter 6: Sealing the Deal

_**Chapter 6: Sealing the deal**_

After school he actually stopped at the gate. Yes. Okay. He had said Kid could come and visit him. And he had thought that in the next few days Kid would probably appear and bother him again. Not six hours later to get him from school.

"..." staring at the person with light brown, almost blond hair, indigo eyes and a leather bracelet with an amethyst charm dangling from it, he was kind of at a loss at what to say or do.

"Eh? Conan-kun, do you know that person?" Ayumi asked curious, looking back and forth between them. "You have been staring at him for about a minute..."

"..." slowly turning around Conan decided to take the back entrance.

"No. Don't know him. Not at all."

"That's so cruel Conan! And I especially came from America to visit you!" twitching at the voice and familiar use of his name he turned around. How had Kid gotten behind him so quickly?!

"... why?"

"What do you mean why? Shinichi asked me to, of course." Shinichi most definitely did not.

"He knew I was planning to return to Japan for a while and said I should keep an eye out for you, since trouble always manages to find you..."

"... really."

"Jup!" grinning at him Conan gave up with a sigh. He had already been caught. Since when was it the other way around, with Kid pursuing and Conan trying to hide...?

"Guys, that's Ishikawa Kaito. An acquaintance from America." turning to Kaito with his sugary 'I'm-such-a nice-kid, like-me!' smile, enjoying the way Kid seemed to twitch when he saw it and added "Kaito-nii-chan. Those are my friends, Ayumi-chan, Genta-kun and Mitsuhiko-kun."

"Heeeh, I've also heard about you from Shinichi. He said you guys solve a lot of cases and help the police, right? Wow...that's really impressive!" lay it on thick, you blasted thief. With that little praise he had immediately scored points with the kids, who stuck out their chests with smug (admittedly adorable) looks and glowing eyes.

Conan kinda wanted to kick something at Kid, for using his alter ego to archive that.

"Well, I've wanted to borrow Conan for a bit. Ah, sorry. Around here I would have to say Conan-kun, right? I will have to get used to that again..." yeah right.

After leaving the kids he burrowed his hands in his pockets and trailed after Kaito.

"So? What did you want from me?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing much."

Conan could feel the vein start to pulse again, which he assumed would be a regular reaction to close proximity to Kid. Glaring at the thief only got him laughed at.

"Oh come on. Don't be like that. Humor me for a bit. How about some cake?"

"I don't really like sweet things..."

Being on the receiving end of a horrified stare, he watched Kid shake his head in distress and got his hand grabbed.

"Hey!"

"Cake it is then!" dragging Conan into the next best cafe they settled at a table that was a little secluded.

"You really should consider the opinions of other people a bit more..." he did not like being dragged around like a child, by a person who knew that he wasn't truly one.

"Well, there is also stuff besides sweet things here, I'm sure you will find something. My treat."

Watching Kid acting like this was... strange. Too normal. When the waitress came, Conan got himself a sandwich and a water. Kid got chocolate cake and fruit tea. While Kid was rambling about god and the world, Conan was sitting there and playing with a handkerchief and staring at Kid as if he was an escaped zoo animal.

After the food arrived and there was a break in the thief's nonstop talking, Conan couldn't help himself but had to ask.

"Why are you doing this? We are not friends. We will probably never be friends. Hell, how could I be friends with someone who not only hides his face from me but whom I know to be on the other side of the law... So why?" it was impossible to form that kind of relationship between them, when he wouldn't be able to see Kids real face. When his mind was following every movement, waiting for Kid to slip up and leave evidence, fingerprints, a hair strand, even though he wasn't exactly sure if he would turn Kid in even if he got some. Besides, it would be hard to explain where and how he got it.

And that was what was bothering him the most. He was relatively sure he would have no trouble at all turning Kid in at a heist. But outside of that he was hesitating. That meant he was already compromised. It settled ill with him to even consider not giving the evidence to the police, even if he found it.

"Because I'm curious about you. And I think we are... actually really similar to each other." Kid scratched his chin in a nervous gesture "Besides, we do work well together if a situation arises..." but those were excuses, half truths, that much Kaito could admit at least to himself. It was strange to be so truthful. Unlike Conan, Kaito was very careful not to let anyone know about his secret, which was probably also easier to hide, because... well he was not half his size. But that also meant that sometimes he felt really, really lonely, since he couldn't talk about anything related to Kid to his friends and his mother was off touring the world.

"And I could use a friend." he added this very quietly but was sure Conan had heard it regardless, for he stayed silent for a while, as he ate.

Looking down at his food, he picked a bit at it, stunned at Kids honest answer.

"... You do know that if you leave evidence behind that I will use it against you." Conan was still torn about what he would do if that ever would come to be, so this would be Kids only warning to be careful and not let his guard down too much. He himself hadn't quite made up his mind, if Kid got any sense of self-preservation he would better double and triple check not to give Conan anything at all that could lead to revealing his identity.

"Sure, sure, Tantei-kun. Whatever you say..." Kaito shoveled a big piece of cake inside his mouth, while he curiously observed Conan. The detective seemed to be in a bad mood since the beginning and tired on top of it. Well, if Kaito was good at one thing, it was taking the mind of other people off of serious thoughts. Though he had to be careful not to reveal too much to the sharp blue eyes, he could give Conan a little show.

Ripping his own paper napkin into pieces he attracted Conan's attention. Balling the pieces into a small ball and hiding them in his palm, he extended his hand to Conan and shot him an expectant look.

"... Really? A magic trick? Now?" Conan deadpanned but since Kid was still holding the fist out to him with an encouraging look plastered over his face, he sighed and cupped his own hands under it. When Kid opened his hand, instead of a paper ball hitting his palms it was a small dove that fluttered excitedly in his cradled hands "Wah!" Okay, so Conan had been expecting a number of things, but not an animal to be dropped in his hands. Said dove was now climbing up to his shoulder and nibbling on his hair.

Kaito called his distraction a success when Mina-chan – the smallest dove he owned – managed to wrangle a smile from the child in front of him.

"So you are a magician, Kaito-nii-chan?" Well, Kaito hadn't actually planned to be but since his identity was completely made-up, it didn't really matter and it was not like Conan didn't know about Kid being a good magician himself already. He was a bit uneasy about revealing so much about Kuroba Kaito, but as long as they never met while he was out of disguise, he didn't think that Conan would make the connection.

"Jup, just an amateur though." hr grinned at Conan's flat look. "Well, I still think we could become friends. Okay, so maybe for now we don't really know much about each other but it's not like we don't know each other at all..." and Kaito was sure that Conan also (more or less and probably would never admit to it) respected him. After all, it happened quite a few times that Conan had actually let him go already, despite not being friends. Not that he wanted to be friends to have Conan give up on catching him (though he would be very glad if the kid stopped kicking stuff in his direction), since he actually quite enjoyed the challenge Conan always represented, when he attended a heist.

Juggling the unused knife in his hand, he added "But I already know about you and you – more or less – know about me. Even if it's just talking, or having someone at your back in case of emergencies, that helps..."

"Fair enough, however your emergencies will probably be stuff I would have to report. And I have no way to contact you anyways..."

"No problem!" a small smoke-cloud appeared in front of Conan, when if cleared there was a small card with an address on it.

"It's an App, where we can chat. That way you can also contact me whenever...so give it a chance?" clever. It was probably coded and protected so one wouldn't be able to trace back by whom and where it was accessed from. Seemed like Kid had actually thought this through a lot.

It looked like Kid was really serious about this, and even if Conan was unsure, he had to admit it could come in handy some day. Even Conan had to grudgingly admit that they worked well together, and if they could manage that from meeting by chance he was pretty sure that they would work great together when they had actually time to plan. At least in that aspect he could agree that Kid was a reliable partner when it concerned keeping others from harm, and for that alone it was worth it to accept the communication.

Breathing in, he felt uncomfortable but gave a small nod. "Okay.." it was very quiet and sounded unsure. He would have contact with a criminal on a regular basis from now on, which didn't sit right with him. Not yet. Nodding again he repeated louder and in a more determined tone, "Okay. Let's try it. No more stalking though."

"No promises." at Conan's glare Kaito just chuckled again "Well, no stalking if it doesn't have to do with my... nighttime job."

A little appeased but not really happy Conan huffed a quiet breath and finally got to eat the rest of his sandwich. Kid, ah no, he should get used to Kaito as long as Kid was in that disguise. Kaito didn't seem so bad, even if Conan didn't really know what to talk about with the thief yet, the magician filled the silence with his ramblings and occasional magic tricks, that always served to distract Conan whenever his mind seemed to want to drift off.

When they finally parted at the Agency, Conan had to admit at least to himself, that he had actually enjoyed the meal.

"I guess I'll have to see where this will head to..."

* * *

><p>Conan had downloaded the App Kid had given him to contact him on his smartphone. The next day after school he decided to take a peek. It was a rather simple design, but Kid had already posted some stuff their that had Conan question his already questionable sanity once again.<p>

[07:24] Arsene Lupin: "Saw a manticore in the city. It called me crazy, I wonder why..."

[07:57] Arsene Lupin: "Came upon a great mystery. Interested?"

[09:31] Arsene Lupin: "Was called crazy again."

[12:19] Arsene Lupin: "You know, blond looks better when it's pink."

[12:22] Arsene Lupin: "Bored."

[15:48] Arsene Lupin: "Helped an old lady over the street – brownie points for me!"

Blinking down at the text, Conan felt himself at a loss again. How did one respond to random stuff like that? Slowly he typed a reply.

[17:04] Detective-geek: "Before I write anything... change the name."

[17:12] Arsene Lupin: "You are no fun at all..."

[17:18] Sherlock Holmes: "Did you give me that App just so state whatever random things happen during your day?"

[17:28] Arsene Lupin: "Oh come on, it's no fun to just write serious stuff."

[17:43] Sherlock Holmes: "You are just plain crazy..."

[18:01] Arsene Lupin: "Well, some people never go crazy... must be a sad, horrible life."

[18:07] Sherlock Holmes: "You aren't talking about me, right?"

[18:15] Arsene Lupin: "Oh, you caught that? Ha, ha, you should go on and be crazy too. I'm crazy. I don't pretend to be otherwise. It's heaven! Come to uuuussss!"

[18:18] Sherlock Holmes: "I'll just pretend I didn't read that."

[18:24] Arsene Lupin: "Aww, come on. It was a joke."

[18:33] Arsene Lupin: "Detective? Don't ignore meeee..."

[18:36] Arsene Lupin: "I'm going to steal your phone! O_^"

[18:37] Arsene Lupin: "And then I'm changing every name in it!"

[18:49] Arsene Lupin: "And I will add sound to the App, so you will hear it every time a message comes through!"

- Bling -

[22:37] Arsene Lupin: "There you go."

- Bling -

[22:42] Arsene Lupin: "Now you won't be able to ignore me!"

- Bling -

[22:49] Arsene Lupin: "Are you there? Hello?Hello?

- Bling -

[22:53] Arsene Lupin: "Test, Test."

[22:54] Sherlock Holmes: "Shut up and GO TO SLEEP! And turn off the sound or I will turn off my phone – or kick it in your face the next time I see you!"

Yes, Conan was quite sure now. Agreeing to Kid's stupid ideas was a sign of at least temporary insanity. And if he hadn't been completely insane back then, Kid would probably manage to drive him there quickly...

Chuckling to himself, Kaito turned the sound off again and went to sleep.

* * *

><p><span><strong>AN:**

Okay, so Kaito is quite determined to get Conan to give this a try and now they can communicate with each other. That is the Basis I worked towards to get them to talk to each other, even if Conan agreed more because he was to tired to put up much of a fight :P

Sad News though: I don't have as much time as before, so my updates will slow down a bit. Next update will be in two weeks on the 20th December.

I am thinking about maybe doing a one-shot für Christmas, tell me if you would be interested because - as I said - I do not have much time and I'm not quite sure if i will actually get to it at all :(

Next Chapter 7: Legwork


	7. Chapter 7: Legwork

_**Chapter 7: Legwork**_

Their strange... texting relationship (what else should he call it?) continued and Conan slowly got used to getting almost daily random updates that made no sense whatsoever. It was... bemusing. And he was still not really sure what to think about it all, it was not a situation he had thought he would ever find himself in. Well, getting used to odd happenstance was nothing new to him after all, seeing who he was right now. Although he had to admit it was a little amusing. Especially when he was bored out of his mind at school. Sometimes Kid even send small riddles, thought most were easy enough to solve, some did take him a bit longer to dissect. Conan suspected that it was Kids way of trying to engage him into a conversation, since he was still reluctant in answering any of these texts. Slowly he was getting more comfortable with it, when he tried to forget that he was actually conversing with a criminal over phone now. Regularly. Out of his free will. Well... Kid was … okayish. Maybe. Sometimes. When he wasn't anywhere in his vicinity.

The murdered victim case that hadn't been solved yet had been on his mind every time his mind drifted off, which happened a lot during school. Since it was already keeping his mind this busy, Conan decided to follow this case as much as he could while he was at it. And since the police was – to his frustration – understandingly uncooperative about handing out any details to him, he was left with the documents that he had partially managed to take photos of or investigating on his own.

The last two crime scenes were inaccessible by now and he didn't know the exact location. However he had managed to wrangle an address from Takagi, from the victim he had found. If nothing else, this would be his starting point. To Takagi he had said that he wanted to pay his respects to that Nee-san and the police officer had believed him readily, despite Conan having never really attended a funeral from any other case before. Maybe because this crime scene was rather gruesome for a child (and even his teenage self was unsettled, having never dealt with a rape case before it made him sick even thinking about it).

School was boring as always, however Kogoro had managed to reel in some interesting, yet easy to crack cases that Conan had the pleasure to solve in his spare time.

Right now though, school was over and Conan had happily said his goodbyes to his friends, to take the train to the house of the third victim.

Arriving at the home he rang the bell and a woman clad in black from head to toe with red rimmed eyes opened the door.

"Oh?" she said after she confusedly looked down and saw him standing there. Bowing a little to get on his level she kindly asked "And what are you doing here, little one?"

"Uhn..." looking at her with big, sad eyes he hesitated a little but pushed on nevertheless "I wanted to pray for Nee-chan," he said, wringing his hands "but I didn't know where to go so I asked for your address..."

Her eyes teared up a little, but also seemed to soften. She swallowed thickly and managed a trembling smile "That's right, they said some.. children had... found.. found Satsuki. It's nice of you to think of her and coming here..." the door opened a little wider, inviting him to come inside "Come in first... do you want something to drink? I have some juice..."

He knew he was taking advantage by manipulating her kind and motherly nature, but such had been his life since he had been turned into half his original size. He had very quickly realized that adults just didn't take a kid seriously, no matter how mature said kid was for his age. Thus he was forced to get around that hurdle by acting the kid part. Pulling his shoes off in the Genkan he followed her inside and settles in the living room. There he could see a rather new addition of a very beautiful but at the same time ominous Butsudan, a shrine for the spirits of the ancestors or, as in this case, a dead family member.

Looking around he saw a lot of pictures of a happy teenage girl. Pictures of her at school, of her with her family and friends and of various ages. Looking the pictures over he saw one, where she was pictured with what he thought might be her boyfriend, if he interpreted the looks on both their faces right, as well as their general close stance to each other.

A glass appearing in his vision had him looking up to the mother and sitting down on the sofa, sipping the orange juice.

"I'm sorry you had to find her..." the mother said, she had composed herself in the kitchen. She was still pale and seemed stretched thin, but she probably wanted to appear strong in front of a child. He was a little sorry that he had to put her through this, but right now she was the only person who could tell him anything about the victim. And if he wanted leads to stop hat guy, he would have to get more information, especially about the backgrounds of the victims.

"It's all right..." his voice tilted a little, which was probably good because while he hadn't planned it, it was weird for a kid not to be affected by what he had seen.

"I didn't get a close look at all, I just called the police to the place..." he lied and looked up to her "They told me they would get the bad guy." her eyes were watering again and Conan quickly looked away. He was bad with tears, had always been, except when it was a culprit. Seeing someone grieve though had always cut something deep inside of him... Looking at the pictures he focused on the first one he saw "Satsuki-nee-chan is about the same age as my Ran-nee-chan, did she still go to school, too?" distracted the mothers gaze followed his and found the picture.

"Eh. Yes, she is... was in her third year of high school..."

Now, how to get more information about the girl, without seeming obvious about it?

Putting the glass on the table he padded over to the pictures and looked at them. The mother followed him. For a moment there was a silence and Conan looked up to her after a while.

"Can you tell me a bit about her?"

"Ah... I can, wait a second..." reaching up she pulled a photo album out of a shelf and beckoned him to the couch again. Obliging he settled beside her and looked at the pictures she showed him, that detailed the life of the girl named Satsuki Honodera.

"She loved going out with friends, especially Karaoke..." the mother said, tracing a picture that detailed the exact scene. Looking at the school uniform he could see the small logo that showed her going to a nearby university. Her friends wore the same uniform as her, except two people.

"Although she had a big row with her boyfriend this past month..."

"Her boyfriend? That one right?" he pointed at the man he had seen on a photo on the shelve.

"Yes. How did you know?" her surprised eyes looked over to him and he mentally scolded himself, but pointed at the picture "Because they are reeeaally close to each other in that picture." it seemed to satisfy her.

"That's right... well, since they didn't get to make up he is rather torn up about it..." she sighed "He's such a nice boy too..."

"Oh. They had a fight? What did they argue about then...?"

"It... well, she didn't exactly tell me, you will understand why when you are older, but I think it was about another friend of hers... she thought he was … ah how to explain... he was romancing not only her but also another girl too."

"Oh. That's not nice. Ran-nee-chan said you shouldn't do something like that."

"That's right." his childish response had elicited a small smile from her. It seemed like talking about her daughter when she was still alive did lift her depressed mood for a little.

Going through more photos he saw that Satsuki was fond of trying out new hobbies. She seemed to change from dancing, to climbing, to yoga and other activities. Her mother explained that she didn't really stick to any of those, because she became bored or distracted with other things really fast.

When they reached the end of the album the mother pointed at one of the last pictures, where Satsuki was holding a tennis racket and waving into the camera.

"She started playing tennis a while ago too, and she quickly fell in love with the sport. I think it's the first time she stuck to one activity for so long. Just before... she was so happy, because of a sprained ankle she almost missed it, but it healed just in time for her to participate in her tennis tournament, but she never came b-back home. When her friends called that she had not shown up to the outing they had planned to celebrate her participation – whether or not she won...we called around, then told the police that she was missing..." the composure she had shown broke a little as a few tears spilled over and her breathing hitched from suppressed sobs "N-never thought … never thought this would happen..."

Feeling a little helpless he gently petted her hand and extracted a fresh handkerchief from his schoolbag, that she used to dab her eyes.

"Thank you for telling me about her..." he said, this time completely honest "I would have loved to know her before..."

"She would have adored you... But it's getting late, your guardians must be worried... thank _you_ for listening to me going on and on..."

In the end he left, after being handed some sweets he couldn't bring himself to reject even though he really didn't like them. Well, there was someone useful for that: Genta.

On the train ride he mentally went through everything the woman had said to him, trying to find the useful pieces for the big, unfinished puzzle that the case represented in his mind. Frowning in concentration he unhappily confirmed that it still didn't get him any further. It was hard to keep track of everything without noting it down, but after Ran had almost found one of his notebooks – which would have been disastrous – he had gotten into the habit of either stowing everything away in places she wouldn't have access to (quite hard since he lived with her but he did have a small storage at his old home, though only limited access due to his circumstances) or just mentally reviewing it over and over until he was sure he wouldn't forget a single detail. He had always been good at remembering details, had trained himself to never forget a fact, however the years as a kid had forced him to hone that ability to a whole new level.

Tapping his fingers against his knee he sightlessly stared out of the window and compared what he already knew about the case with the information he had just received. His thoughts circled until he reached his destination and got back to the agency, where Ran was waiting with a smile and warm food.

* * *

><p>The next day when he went to school, looking around for any hint that Kid was once again stalking him, because he felt unsettled once more. Sighing when he found nothing to indicate the thief's presence, he put his Skateboard down and rolled to school with lazy tabs to the ground. Kid had probably just needled him a bit too much and he was still high strung from before. Sometimes it needed a bit of time to settle again, and with the Black Organisation after him he had reasons to be careful.<p>

Arriving at school he put his things away in his locker and greeted his small friends in the classroom. Ai was still at home, pretending to be sick, while probably sitting in the basement and doing her scientific stuff or reading fashion magazines again. Lucky her, if only he could pretend to be sick and do whatever he wanted at home. But noo, if he pretended he was stuck in bed and fussed over by Ran.

Half asleep he stared blankly at the blackboard. It. Was. Mind numbing. But he was used to doing nothing while working things over in his head. At home he had looked over the pictures of the documents again. If he had the chance, maybe he could go to the Professor and look at them at a laptop, which would be better than the small screen of his phone. There was still something that was trying to catch his attention. He tried to think over everything again, slowly working through the evidence and crime scene on his mental plane. The crime scenes he only knew from photos were sadly lacking. But he did search through it anyways.

Every crime scene showed a girl. They had at first been subdued by a drug – and it was rather curious to note that the method had been changed. The first had been injected. The second had ingested it and the last one had breathed it in – before strangled. For the strangulation there had always been used something of their own possession, a tie, a scarf..

That meant that the murderer had to have access to different drugs somehow. Apothecary, Hospital, Laboratories... if only he knew what kind of substances were used he could probably narrow it down.

In the reports it said that the stab wounds had been caused postmortem, just as he had thought. And the rape... that, sadly was unclear. It either happened while the victim was unconscious, or already dead.

Probably either after the strangulation or after the rape the murderer dressed his victims carefully and straightened their hair and put on make up. After leaving a flower, a pale pink Carnation, the murderer left.

No finger- or shoe-prints, no hairs, no skin flakes, no semen or blood. That guy ways careful not to leave any evidence behind.

The victims were rather similar, indicating that the murderer had a certain type he went after.

For now Conan could add: Slim body, similar high about 1.70 m, long brown hair. About the same age-group as well.

Now what was it that had- "Edogawa-kun, please answer the question!"

"Huh?!" Laughter erupted in the class because of his atypical answer. Oops.

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN:**

I'm sorry to say that I need a small break, because I haven't gotten around to write much at all. I will post the chapters I already have though, and hopefully in that time I will get my stuff sorted out and can take a bit more time to write again.

I know this chapter is mostly about the case, and you guys want to see Kaito again. Don't worry, next chapter he will shove his way into the Story again ;)

Hopefully on 3ed January: Chapter 8 - Cake at a crime Scene!


	8. Chapter 8: Cake at a crime scene

_**Chapter 8: Cake at a crime scene**_

After school he made his way to Professor Agasa's house. Inside he finally got to a computer where he could look at the pictures he had made from the documents, without having to fear Ran looking over his shoulder, hoping that this time noone would interrupt his thought process.

Looking over the evidence he frowned and tried to return to the line of thought he had lost back in school. Seeing the pictures on the bigger screen didn't help as much as he thought. In the end he gave up with an unsatisfied sigh and leant back.

Mentally he checked off his findings once again.

- Different drugs (though _of course_ they hadn't said _which_ drugs in the report) and methods to subdue the victim. Unusual. Meant the criminal had to have access, or knew someone with access to narcotics.

- Similar victims. He would have to look into their backgrounds a bit more, there just had to be a connection somewhere. Criminal had

- Different places, but not too far apart. Seeming to head more and more into the inner city, the perpetrator was getting bolder?

- Satsuki Honodera, the only victim where he had been able to look at the crime scene himself, had been an active school girl, popular, got into a fight with her boyfriend. Hobbies were Karaoke, going out with friends and Tennis. She had recently participated in a tournament after which she disappeared.

She had been drugged, strangled and then murdered and raped. If the rather untouched surroundings (the dust hadn't been stirred much) were anything to go by, she had been transported there after everything was over. That meant the murder scene was probably somewhere else.

It was just too bad that the evidence he had was incomplete and second hand. He didn't know if they hadn't included some things in the report and he hadn't managed to get all the documents photographed in time.

Closing the pictures he decided to keep an eye on the case. It was definitely serial, however he lacked information to actually do something about it, which was frustrating but the sad truth was: It couldn't be helped. The criminal made it obvious that the crimes are connected. Instead of hiding the victims, so that he could continue killing secretly, this one was trying to attract attention. One could only hope that it wouldn't take long for him to slip up and make a mistake. The earlier they got him, the less people would die. For now his thoughts were just running in circles, trying to find more to the case but not having enough evidence to get to any conclusion. He was frankly not used to that very much. The only other case that was really long lasting, was the one that had gotten him stuck in his child's body.

"Looking for trouble again, Kudou-kun?" jumping like a cat at the voice directly behind him Conan would deny until his dying breath to screaming like a girl.

"_HAIBARA_!" pressing a hand to his fast beating heart he exhaled "Don't do that."

"So... it's that case you stumbled over right...? Haven't found the culprit yet?" she asked, folding her arms on the back of his seat while Conan twisted around to look at her.

"Not really... It's not like I was at every crime scene... and there isn't really much to go on to get to the murderer yet..."

"Ah... that means it's a serial killer then? Though luck. Does he go after little girls or boys?"

Frowning at her Conan was tempted to open the pictures again to show her, because she seemed so callous about it, but when he saw her serious concerned eyes he just sighed. Hiding her true feelings again, he was slowly getting the hang on reading them. Probably.

"No, nothing for you to worry about..." or Ayumi "Still... I keep thinking that I miss something obvious..." ruffling his hair he huffed annoyed. Well, whatever it was it wouldn't bring him closer to the identity of the perpetrator.

"I wish there was something I could do, but I only have bits and pieces of the reports the police have gathered and only one crime scene I've seen myself. I don't have enough to even get close to a guess..." and the crime scene hadn't revealed all that much. If Conan had to guess, it was staged. While she had been murdered there, the drugging and raping had taken place somewhere else.

"Hmm... though." she reached out and closed the laptop he had been using "But maybe you shouldn't get involved with that case anyways. Don't you have enough problems already without getting involved with a serial killer?"

"Mah, for now it's not like I could do anything about it. It bothers me that we have to wait for another victim and hope that the loon makes a mistake..."

"We, Kudou-kun?" Haibara looked at him with a raised eyebrow, before sighing and turning away "You _are_ a hopeless case. Don't say I didn't warn you off..."

Looking after her Conan decided to follow. It was no use trying to think more about the case, when everything seemed to come to a dead end.

* * *

><p>Several days later Conan saw a picture of a girl that fit the features the other victims. All that was being said on the news was, that the sports teacher had been found murdered and raped in a public toilet. The investigation was still running.<p>

If that was another victim of the same murderer as the girl in the abandoned building, and the other two before, the police had probably arrived to late to stop the news from being spread by mouth. Maybe the vultures of the press had arrived even before the police. The last incidents had been kept mostly under wraps, it was to keep the citizens from panicking. Or other, similar incidents from happening, like a copycat emerging. That was really the last thing they could use.

In his thoughts he once again begun to compare what he knew about the case.

The victims so far were all female, had long, brown hair and about the same high and stature. It was highly likely that they were chosen by appearance. The skin tone was different though.

Not all of them were the same age, ranging from high school, to just out of school and just having got their job. Ages were from 19 to 26.

It appeared that the perpetrator got more and more confident. The first victim had been found in the woods, far outside the city. She had only been found several days after she had died. After that was the woman on the parking lot. Nearer to the city but also found relatively soon because someone coming by the rather seldom used parking area. The third victim was the high school girl in the abandoned building. That was in the city, even if it was more on the outskirts.

And now, if the murder of that sports teacher was actually connected to the previous murders, he had begun to 'hunt' right in the city. It meant he had refined his methods enough to feel confident not to be caught.

Pulling his hair in frustration he stared at the pictures of the reports he had secretly taken. From what he could read, the victims had been drugged, carried off to a safe place to commit the crime, then strangled. Postmortem the other injuries had been added. They had been raped, though it was unclear if they had been unconscious or already dead during the act. It was a small, sickening comfort that the girls hadn't had to live the nightmare, but it was still seriously ill to rape them after they had died. That meant that one possible (but not confirmed) trait of the murderer could be necrophilia. Drugged or dead, the other person was unable to reject the murderer. It could be the motive, but for now it lacked evidence and it was no use to guess more. He would keep that thought in mind, just in case.

This explained why there were no defensive wounds on the victims body. Not on their arms, not even any Yoshikawa lines which they would have gotten if they had tried to resist the strangulation. Or any other wounds from fighting the murderer off. They had simply been unable to defend themselves.

Still, it was confusing as hell. Drugging, strangling, raping, stabbing and dressing them up. Why dress them up at all if you would stab them later on?

And yet the killer was so very careful not to leave even one piece of evidence behind. No hair, no skin, no blood, no semen, not even footprints in the abandoned building, though those could have disappeared after a few days.

He really wished he could just go to the police station and ask for the reports or to be let in in the investigation. As Shinichi he would have maybe had enough influence to manage that. Being a child, noone would even consider it and Haibara would kill him if he tried something that would call so much attention to himself.

A soft 'bling' from his phone had him looking up. Kid had changed the tune of the App they were using to communicate. At school he could put it on silent mode, in his free time he mostly kept the sound on. He still randomly send texts sometimes, but had toned it down to a bearable level. Since the last time they had eaten together, he had seen Kid once more, even if only for a short time.

Taking the phone to his hand he opened the new massage.

[15:46] Arsene Lupin: "What are you doing? Want to meet up?"

Considering the message and looking to the news he weighed his decision carefully.

[15:53] Sherlock Holmes: "Sure. Meet you in 1h at the main station in Shibuya."

While he was there, he could also check out that crime scene...

* * *

><p>An hour later he got off the train with his skateboard tucked under his arm. Looking around he was able to find Kid rather easily, because the thief was entertaining two kids with simple magic tricks. When Kid – <em>Kaito<em> Conan reminded himself once again – looked up and broke out in a grin as he saw Conan approaching, the magic show came to a stop.

"Sorry guys, I believe my time of waiting is over for now." giving his audience a bow and creating a small, thorn-less rose for the girl he said goodbye and wandered over to Conan's side.

"So? Mind telling me what we are doing out here?" figures that Kid – Kaito! - would be curious about that.

"Hello to you too, Kaito-nii-chan." he commented dryly, before turning and starting to walk in the direction of the crime scene.

"You just happened to write the message when I wanted to come here to look something up..."

When Kaito still eyed him suspiciously Conan said.

"Oh come on... it's nothing bad I promise."

"It's a crime scene right?"

"How ever did you guess..?" seeing as he was heading straight to a taped of area where police men were still loitering about, it couldn't have been that hard.

Kaito grinned and coughed and adopted Shinichi's real voice "Well, considering that you recently stumbled across a case that hasn't been solved yet" Conan twitched at the use of his own voice. Bastard. And how did Kid know about that?! Oh yeah, that had been back then when Kid had still tried to stalk him secretly, right? "I thought you would be keeping your eyes out. If one considers the news..." Kid – Kaito – glanced at the newspaper stand of a small tobacco shop "You have concluded the victim being one of that previous case and came to investigate the crime scene yourself. Since you can hardly go to the police station to obtain the information."

Having a skateboard clamped under his arm, Conan stiffly clapped his hands.

"Greaaat deductions. Maybe you should try to be a detective." getting a mocked insulted look for that comment Kaito pressed one hand to his heart. His voice had changed back to normal thankfully.

"Why, I would never!" shaking his head Kaito stuffed his hands in his pockets "Anyways, does that mean you just called me here to be your distraction?" at Conan's slightly sheepish look he sighed "You are too cruel."

With Kaitou Kid as his accomplice it was rather easy to sneak past the guard. Hah. Kid was his accomplice. And he was useful. Again. It made Conan wonder when he had started to trust Kid so much, that he had no problem teaming up with him. Usually there had been no other choice and maybe it was a bit mean to use Kid in this way. It still got him into the crime scene, where he carefully looked around. The area where the body had been had been marked. While Conan was inspecting everything in the toilet that could probably help or be used to indicate something about the perpetrator, Kid was making sure there was a ruckus outside.

It didn't take long for Conan to realize what he ad assumed all along. The place had already been cleaned up by the police and nothing worthwhile had been found. Sneaking out just in time to see the police returning to their stations in front of the toilet. Kid appeared next to him, shooting him an unimpressed look.

"Found something?"

Unhappily Conan shook his head.

"Nothing at all. They cleaned up already, not surprising..."

"Well... you better be_ thankful_ then, because I happened to overhear a bit..." however Kid – Kaito, god damn it – had managed it, Conan looked up expectantly.

"But I don't know if I should tell you, after all you only met me because you wanted a distraction..."

… was Kaito pouting? Blinking rapidly he snorted and tried to hide his laughter by clamping a hand over his mouth. It was something you wouldn't connect to the aloof but elegant Phantom thief Kaito portrayed at night.

"You are just ridiculous. Okay, Mr. Sweet-tooth." Grinning up at Kid he pointed at a small Café on the side that was rather populated by people around their age. Well. Around Kaito's age. "There you go. I saw it opened recently and Ran said their cakes are pretty awesome. Since you already revealed your love for sweet and I basicly know nothing else about you, I thought you might like it." raising an eyebrow challenging "I'm a kid though. You pay."

Meanwhile Kaito was staring at the detective a bit disbelieving. He had really assumed that Conan had only called him here because of the need of a distraction. Had the child-detective just said that as an excuse or had he been serious? Conan's last words had Kaito laughing out loud.

"I see. So you wanted me as a distraction _and_ to pay your meal."

"Exactly." Conan's dry wit had him nearly in stitches. He had – on occasion – thought that Shinichi had humor buried deep inside. He just rarely showed it, and especially not to strangers.

"Okay then. I will tell you over cake." when they entered the store, merrily glittering eyes wandered over the cakes lined up in a showcase. Kaito really seemed to love cakes. After selecting two pieces as well as getting a coffee and hot chocolate, they settled on a small table at a window.

"Mhh, delicious." Kaito said, trying to ignore the shifting Conan that was watching him with big eyes. For the first time the teen-turned-to-a-child looked really like a child in his presence. A child on Christmas day, waiting for the time to open presents. It was rather cute. And maybe he was a bit mean for not saying what Conan wanted to hear right away.

"All right, all right. Stop with that look... really, I just overheard the officers talking while I waited, I was here before you and had a hunch why you would want to meet up here..."

"So, what did you hear?"

"The victim was a teacher at a sports studio around here. She was 24 years old. Apparently some high-school girls found here and reported the incident to the police." a hand reached over and stole Conan's cup, while pushing the coffee to the shrunken detective. The protest that had begun to form on Conans face changed to an almost reverent look and caused another spark of amusement in Kaito. So that was all it took to get to the good side of the soccer-fan? Coffee? Good to know.

"However there has been a witness this time. There is not much information and it's not really confirmed but a girl got to the officers and said she had seen two persons enter. It stood out because apparently one of them was a male, about 1,60 to 1,70 meters tall, slender build. She did not however see the face or anything else distinguishing..."

"How very helpful..." Conan sighed. It wasn't like it was not helpful at all. It just meant that instead of about 40 million people they had maybe about 20 million now. Then you would have to filter out all the people with the wrong statue, people being too young or too old... well, it would be hard without any distinguishing marks. So for now they had – probably, because in front of him sat a person that was proof you could dress up as just about everyone – the gender, as well as an approximate high of the murderer. It could still be a female, since the 'guy' had a slender build (yeah, even he himself knew a girl that was regularly mistaken for a guy, so these things could happen!).

"Well, I got more information than you did, right?" Did Kid sound proud of himself? Raising an eyebrow, Conan couldn't help the almost sardonic smirk.

"My, my, Kaito-nii-chan... we will really make a detective out of you yet..." he really enjoyed the horrified look that spread over Kid's face when for a moment his control slipped. Or maybe it was planned, but Conan couldn't really tell (which was annoying as hell). Shortly after Kid fake-shuddered and waved his hand as if he wanted to get rid of something nasty. Conan was not impressed. At all.

"Tantei-kun, so mean... don't say stuff like that, you are going to cause me nightmares..." Kaito got a far away look on his face, as if imagining a future as a detective and – with his acting talent – managed to go pale white. He looked almost sickly like that. One had to applaud Kid for his talent.

"Just imagine, the world being robbed of another creative mind, adding one more critic to the world. Such a sad, sad fate."

"I get it."

"What would the children do if all the magic disappeared, because everyone became a critic? The horror!"

"You can stop."

"Just think of all the innocent minds that your critic ways already corrupted. Those poor kids hanging around you... they have already adapted to the being as critical as you are..."

"Anytime now, really..."

"And their poor innocent minds have been polluted with it, no turning back to just enjoying the show and always trying to find out the trick..."

"... you are not listening at all anymore, right...?"

"Sure do."

"..." If they weren't sitting in a Cafe packed with people and breakable things he would so kick his ball at that moron in front of him. Instead he settled for trying to kick Kaito under the table. Regretfully he winced when his foot only met hard wood. Damn him.

"Oh come on, I was kidding!" did Kid really just use that pun on him, while wearing the biggest grin imaginable? Yes. Yes he did. When had he thought it might be a good idea to actually meet up with Kid in his free time and had he really envisaged he would still be sane after it?

Right... he hadn't thought about it at all, being to interested in the case as well as getting to know the mysterious person that hid behind a monocle and a top hat at night. And he had to admit, being around Kaito was easy and... the guy was.. sort of likable. When he wasn't stealing things and being smug about it.

* * *

><p>AN:

New chapter. I'm working on Chapter 11 right now, as well as some minor ideas I will probably put into the Story later. Chapter 10 has been a lot of fun to write! I'm looking Forward to sharing that one with you guys :)

Big thanks to Lonely Kid, who keeps me motivated with our talks (and slowly get's me to reveal a lot of my ideas. Was probably the plan from the beginning D:)

As promised, this is a longer chapter. Sadly, the next one will be shorter again. But at least I managed to get over my first obstacle now! Let's hope my Muse won't leave me again anytime soon... :)


	9. Chapter 9: Woolgathering

**_Chapter 9: Woolgathering_**

Kid had actually brought him back to Beika, the comment that he couldn't let a child go back alone at this time had earned him a hard kick against his shin. This time he didn't miss. In Conan's eyes he had totally deserved it.

Right now they were standing in front of the Agency and Conan almost expected a flippant goodbye, a puff of smoke and Kid disappearing in some kind of magic trick. He was not really prepared for Kid going to his knees to get on eye-level with him and being serious.

"You know, Conan... I do worry about you. Promise you won't go after the man himself, should you find him?"

Blinking, because it really sounded like Kid meant it and was concerned about his well being, despite not knowing Conan very well, he took a moment to gape at the thief.

"It's not like I run after _every_ murderer possible..." Conan muttered, but he had to admit that he was prone to recklessly rushing into situations, especially if there was still a chance to save someone. Kaito's hand on his head caused him to look back into the thief in the eyes. Those indigo eyes were frowning at him, as if he was a puzzle that Kid had to unlock. It was unsettling, because Kid was damn good at riddles.

"It doesn't suit you." Conan said and was taken aback just as much as Kid who stared at him in confusion.

Flushing a bit he added "Being so serious. Don't worry, I don't have enough information anyways." scratching his chin he uncomfortably looked away from the eyes that were watching him.

"And if you had?" Conans gaze flicked back to the still serious Kid, bothered about being scrutinized like that. Defiant he lifted his head and stared rebelliously back at Kid.

"I will not take unnecessary risks, but I would never leave someone in danger alone. Not if I can help."

Crossing his arms he practically dared Kid to try and change his mind, while Kaito looked like he had half the mind to do so before changing his own. Giving the small detective a wry smile Kaito ruffled his head extra strongly, getting amusement from the way Conan squeaked and flailed about, then laughed out loud when he actually saw Conan with a rather similar hairstyle to his own, even though Conan tried to comb his hair back again with a glare and the cowlick at the back of his head resisted any attempt to alter it. He should have known that the child-teen would answer like that, it was just the way he was and it was the part that Kaito liked about him, even if he didn't like the fact that due to this particular personal trait the teen-turned-child put himself into danger. And as a child, even with his gadgets, he was more vulnerable. Personally, Kaito thought that Conan forgot about that sometimes.

Both Conan and Kaito flinched when from the side of them – that neither of them had watched – suddenly Ran's voice sounded.

"Oh? Conan-kun, who's your friend?" smiling down at them, since Kid was still crouching in front of him, they both looked at her surprised and in Conan's case a bit panicked. Had she heard their conversation?  
>Kid and his damn poker face got up from his position and shook Ran's hand.<p>

"Ishikawa Kaito, I'm a friend of Conan-kun's family from the States."

"Oh! Nice to meet you. My name is Mouri Ran, Conan-kun is living with me and my dad right now."

When Ran took the hand, Kaito – with a mischievous look in Conan's direction, leant forward and pressed a chaste kiss on Ran's cheek.

"Nice to meet you too, Ran-chan."

If looks could kill? Kid would be dead. Twice over. At least his poker face prevented him (mostly) from showing the pain he felt when Conan pinched him and twisted his fingers sidewards in revenge. One shouldn't take his cover of being from he US too far. And a certain someone should keep his distance to Ran, instead of being overly familiar with her.

Ran meanwhile had taken a flustered step backwards, an uncertain smile on her lips. With a look at Conan's death-glare, Kaito chuckled (secretly delighted to get a rise out of the stoic detective again) and apologized "It's a habit from the US, I'm sorry, that was a bit rude, right?"

And that was how even Ran now knew about Kaito. And since he was a family friend from Conan, she immediately invited him for dinner. Which is how he had been stuck with the guy for a lot longer than he had first signed up for.

The character Kaito made up from scratch was well made. Being a family friend already made him much more trustworthy, so in the future Ran wouldn't be as worried if Conan could say that he was around Kid. It also explained how he knew quite a bit about Conan – and Conan was a bit creeped out that Kaitou Kid knew his favorite meals (he had wondered how Kid had known he liked coffee at the cafe before but hadn't wanted to question his luck...). He just hoped that Kid would be careful not to say too many things that could be related to Shinichi Kudo, since Ran definitely knew him a lot better than the criminal 1412.

Well...Kid had the time of his life, trying to weasel information about his, that is Conan's, stay at the Mouris. Conan tried to intervene but Kid was... fucking good at getting around him. Well, at least Ran was just as happy, even if it was more or less on his expense.

"So..." Kid said, a smile almost breaking his face "... that guy really just ran inside the girls-only bath side?"

Ran giggled while reaching for the rice "Yes,I heard it from the Professor later on." shaking her head in rueful amusement she added "He's just like Shinichi in that aspect. When he sees, hears, or – would you believe it – smells trouble... he just runs there. And no matter what he sees, if it isn't related to the crime..." smiling fondly in the distance she seemed to gather her thoughts quickly while blushing slightly "Well. Shinichi that is. He's a detective, so whenever something happens he always has to get to the bottom of it..."

"Ah yeah.. I think I've met Shinichi...kun once too... is he your boyfriend?" sneaky bastard. He totally did that on purpose just to see them squirm.

Kaito couldn't help it, seeing Conan try to suppress his own flush after listening to Ran praising his real identity, he couldn't do anything else but tease him. And Ran. It was in his nature after all!

"Ahh, it's not like he is my boyfriend really!" Ran tried to explain quickly, but was only coloring more while trying "We are just childhood friends." Conan begun to kick in Kids direction, trying to get the thief to change the topic but hissed when Kid – having anticipated that move – pulled his legs out of the way and he only hit the chair leg instead. Wincing he pulled back for now.

"Well..." she was embarrassed "I haven't seen him in a while anyways..." and that was why he didn't want to remind her of that topic. Kid had probably not known, but … Ran, the last few times he had called... they often got to this topic. And Conan saw how it made her all miserable and depressed. He knew of course that avoiding that conversation was not making it better but he _couldn't_ meet her. The good mood was by now hanging on a thin thread. Glaring at the thief hard he decided he would have to do something, before bad turned to worse.

"Ne, ne, Ran-nee-chan? Going back to the topic before, can I come to your next Karate tournament and cheer you on?"

"A-ah... sure, you don't have school that day anyways... oh but the stands are going to be full... will you be okay with Sonoko?" urgh. It just had to be Sonoko, right? Nodding happily and swinging his feet he agreed with a cheery "Uhn!", while Kid looked at him as if he was totally spooked by Conan's act and would break out in rashes if it continued. It was all Kids fault anyways, so he would have to deal with it. For Ran, he played the being a kid part up extra strong, it often helped to get her mind off of serious thoughts. When Ran looked at him though he had a politely interested expression plastered over his face and continued to ask her about Karate-related stuff.

This time the kick hit the target. He felt vindicated when Kaito winced slightly.

When they said their goodbyes later that evening and Ran was out of earshot, Kaito turned to Conan with a put out expression on his face.

"Do you have to be so violent, Tantei-kun? If you continue like that you will probably cause permanent damage to me..." pouting didn't work quite as well when you had to look down at someone.

"If you can't take a hint, what else can I do but make it obvious? Besides, I think someone once said that pain is a powerful motivator to learn."

Looking up to Kaito, who was now ready to go, he sighed.

"You know... while your disguise is rather good, it does have some flaws..."

At Kaito's curiously raised eyebrow he added.

"I'm looking forward how you will explain your existence to Hattori." and Haibara, but he didn't want to put her in the spotlight for Kaito to sniff around. It was probably better for his well-being if he stayed clear of her.

With that he shoved a rather stunned looking Kaitou Kid out of the door.

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN:**

Okay, so this was not a really Long chapter, I know. I'mnot sure yet how to explain Kaito Ishikawa to Heiji, if he actually Shows up. Because... well he knows that Conan doesn't have Family in the states, so how could he have a Family friend? One that Heiji has never heared about? Yeah right :P  
>I'm actually thinking about it, if I can somehow add him to the Story, but still Need a good idea. So cheer me on!<p>

Other than that, I've not gotten around to write much, if at all in the past two weeks. Work got busy, my sisters birthday, and day to day stuff is filling my days.  
>I do hope I get to write some more, or I will have a Problem with posting Chapter 11 D:<p>

Tell me what you think about the Story so far.

Next chapter, again, in two weeks on 30./31.01.2015!

Chapter 10: Join me for a wild-goose chase

care to guess? :P


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